Despite the biting economic recession and prediction of doom that heralded 2017, President Muhammadu Buhari has broken an economic record.
According to the latest statistics posted on the Central Bank of Nigeria’s, CBN, website that was made available to Post-Nigeria, Nigeria’s external reserves has hit $26.968 billion, nearing the $27 billion mark.
Recall, that the country’s reserves had recorded $23.89 billion low, on October 19. Also, the reserves dropped by 15.9 percent between 2015 and 2016.
The rise in foreign exchange reserves has been attributed to the increase in crude oil price, and production output.
“The reserves rose to $26.968 billion on January 13, from $26.765 billion on January 11, having hit $26.658 billion and $26.552 billion on January 10 and January 11, respectively”, the report reads.
Between December 30, 2016 and January 12, 2017, the foreign exchange reserves rose from $25.8 billion to $26.8 billion, indicating an accretion of $1 billion in two weeks, the CBN data showed.
Within the space of three days, the reserves rose by $300 million, from $26.2 billion, on January 6, to $26.5 billion, on January 12.
Meanwhile, the CBN had spent $4 billion from the nation’s external reserves, to defend the local currency in the last 12 months, despite the staggering fall in the value of the naira against the United States dollar, and other major foreign currency.
The controversial defence of the naira by the CBN, has come under severe criticism from Economists, who believe that the forces of demand and supply should be allowed to determine the exchange rate of the naira, at least to a considerable level.
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