Washington D.C, Oct. 25, 2024 – Nigeria’s external reserve rose to $40.2 billion as of Oct. 18, 2024.
Muhammad Sani Abdullahi, the CBN Deputy Governor (Economic Policy), disclosed this at a meeting with potential foreign investors on the sideline of the ongoing International monetary fund (IMF)/World Bank Annual meeting in Washington DC.
“In terms of our external reserves, we’ve seen a lot of growth over the last couple of months. As of Friday, we were at $40.2 billion of external reserves, which is a significant move up from a year ago, when we were less than $34 billion.
“We’re building buffers to ensure that when the time is required and buffers are required, we’re able to also cover at least 14.3 months of import for goods and services, and 15 months for goods alone.
The apex bank said it was making frantic efforts to boost Nigeria’s foreign remittances to $1 billion monthly from its current level of $650 million.
“As of last year, the highest we had in a month is $350 million now we’re doing $600 million a month for diaspora, and we’re on target in the short to medium to do $1 billion, and that we think will significantly clear the domestic market demand for dollars.
“In 2019 normal exports were $10.4 billion for Nigeria. Last year, we we’re down to about a little over $3 billion. We are now back on our way to, first of all, in the short term, that same $10.4 and then building it out.”
“There’s a lot of work that’s happening right now in terms of ensuring that we clean up our export processes right from the farm gates to the ports, ensuring that we’re removing all the bottlenecks that hamper our economy.
”In 2019 normal exports were $10.4 billion for Nigeria. Last year, we we’re down to about a little over $3 billion. We are now back on our way to, first of all, in the short term, that same $10.4 and then building it out.” (GBN)
