Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves rose 0.27 per cent from a month ago to $47.62 billion as of May 30, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) data showed last Friday. The CBN’s forex buffer stood at $30.36 billion, up 57 per cent from a year ago, but is still far off a peak of $64 billion hit in August 2008.
CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, had in April this year, predicted that the reserves will soon hit $50billion. He made the prediction while speaking at the 25th CBN seminar for Finance Correspondents and Business Editors in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
He said: “Foreign exchange supply has improved since the establishment of the Investors and Exporters, I&E, window, with autonomous inflows of over $20 billion through this window alone from April 2017 to date.
Foreign exchange reserves have recovered significantly from a low of just over $23 billion in October 2016 to about $47.37 billion as at April 5, 2018. Foreign exchange reserves will continue to grow. Following recent accretion, FX reserves may be about $50 billion sometime later this year.”
