Nigeria’s external reserves declined by 1.94 percent to $34.94 billion as at April 28 from $35.25 billion as at April 16, 2021, according to data obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The decline in the external reserves is attributed to lower foreign exchange receipts.
The January 2021 economic report of the CBN showed that external reserves stood at $35.44 billion at the end of January, a decrease of 2.8 percent and 3.5 percent from $36.46 billion in December 2020 and $36.73 billion in January 2020, respectively.
At that level, the external reserves position could cover 6.1 months of import for goods and services and 8.2 months of import for goods only.
Available data showed that Nigeria’s reserves per capita decreased to $171.88, compared with $176.89 at the end of December 2020.
This was below other countries such as South Africa and Egypt with respective reserves per capita of $876.57 and $391.86 in January 2021.
A breakdown of external reserves by ownership revealed the shares of CBN as $30.18 billion (85.18 percent); Federal Government $5.18 billion (14.62 percent); and Federation $0.07 billion (0.20 percent).
In terms of currency composition, the US dollar at $28.64 billion accounted for 80.81 percent; Chinese yuan $4.31 billion (12.16 percent); special drawing rights $2.12 billion (6.0 percent); GB pounds $0.24 billion (0.66 percent); Euro $0.12 billion (0.34 percent); Japanese Yen $0.01 billion (0.03 percent); while other currencies accounted for the balance.
The price of Brent crude oil (petroleum), which remained at about $40 per barrel last year, rose to $68.62 per barrel as at 8.34 pm on Thursday, April 29, 2021.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s currency on Thursday strengthened marginally by 0.06 percent as the naira/dollar exchange closed at N411.00k at the Investors and Exporters (I&E) forex window, lower than N411.25k closed on Wednesday, data from the FMDQ indicated.
Currency traders who participated in the trading on Thursday maintained bids at between N392.00k and N435.65k/$, according to the data.
Exchange rate remained flat at N482 at the Bureau De Change (BDC) segment of the foreign exchange market and N485 at the parallel market on Tuesday.
The foreign exchange daily turnover increased significantly by 229.23 percent to $110.46 million on Thursday from $33.55 million recorded on Wednesday.
