Nigeria’s FX reserves hit $34.14bn

• Published On: 30 June 2024 at 14:07

Nigeria's reserves continued to rise, reaching $34.14 billion on Friday, up 4.06 percent from $32.74 billion on June 3, 2024, according to figures from the Central Bank of Nigeria.

The last rounds of loans the Federal Government received from the World Bank have bolstered the country's reserves.

In May, the Bureau of Public Enterprises announced that the Federal Government had received a $500 million World Bank loan to strengthen the country's electrical distribution industry.

In addition, the World Bank said that the country would get $2.25 billion in aid to help it manage its economy.

"This combined $2.25 billion plan provides immediate financial and technical help to Nigeria's urgent efforts to stabilise the economy and expand assistance to the poorest and most economically vulnerable. It also helps Nigeria's ambitious, multi-year endeavour to increase non-oil income while protecting oil revenues in order to ensure fiscal sustainability and provide the resources to deliver quality public services. The international lender announced in a statement.

As a result, external reserves increased by more than $1 billion in a single month.

Last year, the country faced a dollar deficit, prompting the central bank to float the naira to stimulate foreign cash inflows.

The native currency has now devalued by more than 300 percent in one year, reaching 1,514.31/$ at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market on Friday.

According to a Bloomberg analysis published on Friday, the naira became the world's worst-performing currency in the first half of 2024.

It stated that devaluation, limited dollar liquidity, and market volatility had hampered the Central Bank of Nigeria's efforts to strengthen the currency.

Aside from the naira, Egypt's pound and Ghana's cedi were the world's worst performing currencies in the first half of the year.

CBN suspends FX price verification portal for importers on July 1.
"The naira's performance is the worst among global currencies tracked by Bloomberg beside that of the pound in Lebanon, which is undergoing an economic crisis and witnessing dollarisation," observed the publication.

Meanwhile, CBN Governor Olayemi Cardoso remarked that the central bank was "relatively pleased" with the progress made in stabilising the local currency.

"I believe we've seen the worst of volatility," Cardoso told Bloomberg TV.


"The losing streak is the longest since July 2017, bringing the decline since the beginning of the year to 40%.

The central bank has launched many steps to increase dollar supply in the country and stable the local currency.

Last week, the central bank declared that International Money Transfer Operators would now have access to the official window for selling FX.

In a circular signed by the acting Director of the Trade and Exchange Department, Dr. W.J Kanya, the apex bank stated that the step would allow IMTOs to access naira liquidity at the official window, allowing for the fast settlement of diaspora payments.

In January, the CBN prohibited banks and fintechs from providing foreign money transfer services.

In February, it also began dollar sales to bureau de change operators to increase liquidity in the retail currency market.

It stated that $20,000 would be granted to each eligible BDC operator.

On July 27, 2021, the CBN banned foreign exchange sales to BDCs, charging them of dealing FX in excess of $5,000, a violation of their licences and Nigerian FX laws.