The Central Bank of Nigeria has said that the country’s foreign reserves have continued to grow significantly at about $47.37 billion as at April 5.
The Governor of the CBN, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, who spoke through the newly appointed Deputy Governor, Corporate Service, Edwards Adams, at the opening ceremony of the 25th seminar for financial correspondents and business editors organised by the apex bank in Uyo, Akwa-Ibom state, said the new figures rose from about $46.2 billion realised at the end of March.
Emefiele said the CBN hoped to meet the $50 billion target before the end of the year, noting that Nigeria’s foreign reserves began to witness improvement when the CBN restricted 41 items from imported items into the country.
Comparing this to other countries, he said Nigeria’s latest foreign reserves were about $4 billion more than that of South Africa. South Africa’s net foreign reserves rose to $43.384 billion in March from $43.272 billion in February.
Gross reserves fell to $49.979 billion from 50.051 billion dollars, the South African central bank data showed.
The forward position, which represents the central bank’s unsettled or swap transactions, fell to $1.996 billion from $2.057 billion.“The decrease of 72 million dollars in the gross reserves reflects the foreign exchange payments made on behalf of the government.
“It was partially offset by the depreciation of the U.S. dollar against most currencies,” the South African central bank had said.
Though the Acting Director of CBN, Corporate Communications, Isaac Okorafor, who partly agreed to this development, listed other factors such as inflow from oil and non-oil exports, and huge inflows through the investors and exporters window of the foreign exchange market, for contributing to the growth.
