Nigeria’s External Reserve is steadily heading towards the $50 billion mark, berthing at $46 billion at the close of business on March 9, 2018.
Available figures at the week end indicate that the reserve swelled by about $3.2 billion between February and March 2018.
At the beginning of the year, the reserve stood at $39.3 billion, but rose to $42.8billion in February, before soaring to $46 billion.
Sources attributed the growth to the apex bank’s effort at discouraging unnecessary importation and reducing the nation’s import bill; inflow from oil and non-oil exports, as well as the huge inflows through the investors and exporters window of the foreign exchange market, which reportedly attracted over $33 billion since April 2017.
The apex bank’s interventions in the foreign exchange window also helped to moderate the pressure on the forex reserves by sustaining liquidity in the market and boosting production and trade.
The CBN policy restricting access to forex from Nigeria’s foreign exchange market to importers of some 41 items has also reportedly made a huge impact on the status of Nigeria’s reserve and boosted the supply of local substitutes for imported goods, created jobs at home and enhanced the incomes of farmers and local manufacturers.
The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, at the Annual Bankers’ Dinner of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) held in Lagos in November last year, had projected that Nigeria’s external reserves would hit the $40 billion mark in 2018.