The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has stated that between January and March, the nation’s foreign reserves decreased by $1.46 billion. The reserves stood at $36.67 billion as of February 27, 2023.
According to statistics on the movement of foreign reserves released by the CBN on Sunday, the reserves declined from $36.99 billion at the end of January 1, 2023, to $35.53 billion at the end of March 30, 2023.
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) blamed the loss in foreign reserves on the decline in crude oil price during the most recent Monetary Policy Committee in Abuja in March.
“The committee, however, noted the marginal decline in the level of gross external reserves to $36.13bn in February 2023, from $36.4bn in January 2023, a decrease of 0.7 per cent, reflecting the downtrend in crude oil prices, as global uncertainties persist,” he said.
Nigeria’s external reserves decreased by $3.43 billion in 2022, from $40.52 billion at the end of December 31, 2021, to $37.09 billion at the end of December 29, 2022, according to CBN statistics.
The CBN earlier in 2022 introduced a scheme called the “RT200 FX Plan” to increase the country’s currency supply through the non-oil industry in the next three to five years.
Emefiele described the RT200 FX Programme as a collection of non-oil export strategies, plans, and programs that would allow Nigeria to achieve $200 billion in FX repatriation, entirely from non-oil exports, during the following three to five years.
He said the programme’s five key anchors were value-adding exports facility; non-oil commodities expansion facility; non-oil FX rebate scheme; dedicated non-oil export terminal; and biannual non-oil export summit.
