Naira appreciation: Nigeria gets fresh $600m into FX reserves

Olayemi Cardoso, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, reports that Nigeria’s foreign reserves have increased by $600 million.

As a result, in the upcoming days, the Naira would weaken much further against the dollar at the official market, falling below N1,074 per Dollar.

The governor of the CBN disclosed on Wednesday during the International Monetary Fund’s spring meetings in Washington, DC.

The apex bank clarified that the changes in the country’s reserves have nothing to do with defending the Naira in the FX market.

“In the next couple of days, I think between yesterday and today, we had about $600 million into the reserves account, so I wouldn’t let people get too excited about it. That’s where we’re going. So the shifts you’ve seen in our reserves have nothing to do with defending Naira,” he said.

Cardoso did point out that the apex bank is concentrating on achieving independence for the foreign exchange market, where market forces are in charge.

“It is not my intention to defend the Naira. We’re pushing the markets to a willing buyer / willing seller price discovery. And ultimately, I perceive a future where the central bank will not need to intervene.

“What is important to us is that there’s sufficient liquidity in the market, which I’ve spoken about here today,” he said.

He went on to say that the CBN was trying to boost the Bureau de Change market, which included its recent FX sales.

Recall that as of April 15, ZINGTIE announced that Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves were $32.29 billion; with the additional inflow of $600 million, the external reserves would increase to around $33.49 billion.

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