Nigeria’s economy in 2018 continues to light up the splinters with statistical data and analysis pointing at the huge possibility of an economically relishable year.
The Central Bank of Nigeria has revealed that Nigeria’s foreign reserves has hit a 3-year high after new Forex policies by the governor of Nigeria’s apex bank, Godwin Emefiele is yielding results.
According to a statement released by the Spokesman of the CBN, Isaac Okorafor, Nigeria’s foreign exchange was at $40.4Bn, the highest since October 2014, a figure which represents a massive increase of over $1bn between December 2017 and January 2018.
He said the new figure lays credence to the vision of the CBN Governor, Emefiele shared at the Annual Bankers’ Dinner of the Chartered Institute of Bankers(CIBN) in November 2017.
Okorafor said the discovered increase is due to the bank’s strategy to “manage forex demand by various sectors of the economy”.
“Citing the CBN policy restricting access to forex from the Nigerian forex market by importers of some 41 items as the major turning point, Okorafor said the policy had helped to stop the hemorrhaging of the country’s external reserves, which hitherto witnessed heavy depletion due to huge import bills and other debt obligations,” he said.
Okorafor said the CBN forex restriction policy has ensured that the nation’s import bill reduced from $5 billion monthly to $1.5 billion in 2017.
He added that the CBN also injected $210 million into the interbank foreign exchange market.
A further breakdown of the figure showed that the CBN offered $100m to the wholesale sector while the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and invisibles windows each received $55 million.
Nigeria continues to relish a good economic period despite the breakdown in normal activities of many critical sectors of the economy.
