OpeOluwani Akintayo
16 February 2018, Sweetcrude, Lagos — According to the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, on Wednesday, the country’s foreign reserves rose to about $42.8 billion in January compared to $34.53 billion in December 2017, an indication of $8 billion growth.
CBN’s spokesman, Isaac Okoroafor, said the country’s economy continues to grow as inflation drops.
The National Bureau of Statistics, NBS had on Tuesday, said in its report that Nigeria’s Consumer Price Index, CPI, dropped to about 15.13 percent in January 2018 from 15.37 percent in December 2017.
CPI measures the composite changes in the price level of the market basket of consumer goods and services purchased by households, such as transportation, food, and medical care, over a period.
According to Okoroafor, the rise in Nigeria’s foreign reserves indicates the positive impact of government policies on the economy.
The growth of the reserves, according to him, was as a result of CBN’s policies geared at reducing importation of goods that can be produced in the country.
CBN in 2015, introduced policy barring importation of 41 items and services produced within Nigeria from accessing foreign exchange from the official inter-bank market.
“CBN decided to go into the funding of rice and other agricultural produce because we felt that food supply is key if price stability is to be maintained,” he said.
“Food makes up a disproportionately large portion of the basket of prices in the country. We (CBN) decided to target food supply to bring down inflation.
“Second, we went into this business of funding agriculture because we felt that food, especially rice, was a key component of importation in Nigeria.”
According to him, importation of rice had gulped billions yearly resulting in depletion of the country’s foreign reserves.
CBN believes if the country could deal with rice importation and replace it with local rice production, it would be working at rebuilding the foreign reserves, he said.
