BEVERLY HILLS, February 03, (THEWILL) – Despite the recent increase in prices of crude, Nigeria’s foreign reserve has dropped, figures published by the Central Bank of Nigeria show.
The foreign reserve opened the year on 4th January 2021 with $35.6 billion, but as at 1st March 2021, the reserve was plunged down to $34.996 billion.
The poor flow of dollars into the reserve affects the nation’s exchange rate with other currencies.
The Nigerian Naira has been under pressure for months, with the CBN announcing an official devaluation from N379 to N410.
This however, has not been reflected on the CBN website, as banks offer the dollar at N415 at GTBank and N450 by Access Bank.
In contrast, the street value has stabilised at N475-N480.
The highest level the reserves reached was in the $36 billion range from January up till 5 February.
On 8 February, it fell to $35,927,981,941.
Since then, it failed to recover to the January-early February level, even as oil prices increased from $54.66 per barrel on 6 January to $66, quoted by CBN on Wednesday.
Nigeria at present produces about 1.65million barrels of crude a day, in compliance with the OPEC quota.
Crude export accounts for about 90 percent of Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings, but the nation spends over $10 billion yearly importing refined products.
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