Nigeria’s external reserves lost $350 million in two weeks, according to figures obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria on Monday.
With the recent loss, the country’s reserves has fallen to $34.9 billion from $35.25 billion recorded as of April 16.
The apex bank had recently attributed the improvement in the level of external reserves to the recent upsurge in crude oil prices on the backdrop of the renewed optimism on the successful deployment of COVID-19 vaccines across the globe.
In its January economic report, CBN said, “As a consequence of the lower foreign exchange receipts, the official external reserves declined.
“External reserves stood at $35.44bn at end-January 2021, a decrease of 2.8 per cent and 3.5 per cent from $36.46bn in December 2020 and $36.73bn in January 2020.
“At that level, the external reserves position could cover 6.1 months of import for goods and services and 8.2 months of import for goods only.”
It added that available data showed that Nigeria’s reserves per capita decreased to $171.88, compared with $176.89 at end-December 2020.
The report said that in January, a breakdown of external reserves by ownership revealed the shares of the CBN as $30.18bn (85.18 per cent); Federal Government, $5.18bn (14.62 per cent); and federation, $0.07bn (0.20 per cent).
