OpeOluwani Akintayo
Lagos — Nigeria’s external reserves has grown to almost $37 billion upon an improved oil price of $56 per barrel on Monday.
Statistics from the Central Bank of Nigeria as at when last updated on January 25, showed that the country’s reserves which was $35.400bn at the beginning of January, is currently at $36.600.
International Brent price was $55.44 as at January 25. Price has since increased to $55.64 at 9:46AM WAT on Monday.
The CBN noted that the improvement in the country’s reserves is as a result of increase in crude oil prices, partial global economic recovery over the discovery and distributions of COVID-19 vaccines by most developed economies.
Nigeria had recorded consistent decline in its reserves in recent months due to low oil prices. The country’s reserves stood at $34bn on November 30.
External reserves as of October 30, 2020 fell by 0.3 per cent and 10.2 per cent to $35.58bn, compared with $35.67bn and $39.61bn at end-September 2020 and end-October 2019, respectively.
A breakdown of the external reserves by ownership showed that the CBN had the largest share of $30.41bn (85.5 percent) followed by the Federal Government with $5.10bn (14.3 percent).
On the other hand, Nigeria’s reserves per capita was $172.60 compared with $174.44 in September 2020.
The CBN explained that the drop in the country’s reserves at those months was due to its objective of ensuring a predictable macroeconomic environment through interventions in SMIS, BDC and I&E windows to stabilise the naira exchange rate.
The external reserves position in October could cover 7.9 months of import of goods and services and 10.6 months of import of goods only, the apex bank added.