Nigeria’s foreign reserves fell by $454.05million from $36.57billion on June 1 to $36.12billion on July 15, according to the latest figures from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The CBN, in its February monthly report entitled ‘Gross external reserves,’ said the reserves stood at $36.6billion at the end of February 2020, indicating a decline of 0.4 per cent at the end of January 2020.
It said the decline was due mainly to foreign exchange market interventions and direct payments.
According to the CBN, the external reserves position can finance four months of imports of goods and services, or 6.4 months of goods only, using the import figure for the fourth quarter of 2019.
It added that a breakdown of the external reserves by ownership showed that the share of the Federation reserves is $.33billion (0.9 per cent); Federal Government is $6.6billion (18.1 per cent); and the CBN is $29.6billion.
The CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, at the last Monetary Policy Committee meeting, reiterated the need for the government to urgently reduce its reliance on oil revenue by gradually diversifying the economy and improving tax collection.
He said headwinds to growth remain the legacy issues of the persistent infrastructural and security challenges.
“Central to the committee’s considerations were the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the oil price shock and the likely short- to medium-term consequences on the Nigerian economy,” he said.
In particular, Emefiele added, the committee acknowledged the gradual improvement in macroeconomic variables, particularly the improvement in the equities market, the containment measures of the COVID-19-induced health crisis and the impact of the increase in crude oil price on the external reserves.
