Nigeria’s Foreign Reserves Drop To $29.13 Billion

Recent reports from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) indicate that Nigeria’s foreign reserves dropped to 29.13 billion dollars as of December 29, 2015. According to the report, posted on the CBN’s website, this represented a drop of 2.43% from the figure of $29.31 billion dollars recorded on December 23, 2015.

Nigeria’s external reserves, which stood at $34.49 as of January 5, 2015, have been taking a steady dive since the second half of 2015. This is believed to be largely as a result of a severe shortage of US dollars, which saw the CBN spending more than $5 billion dollars to try and shore up the value of the Naira in the first half of the year.

Despite the efforts of the CBN however, the value of the Naira has continued to plummet at the unofficial foreign exchange market, a situation compounded by crashing global oil prices.