Uche Usim, Abuja
The New Year opened on a pleasant note for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as the nation’s foreign reserves stood at $43,075,740,908 on Friday, making it the highest opening balance in the last six years.
Records from the apex bank shows that the last time Nigeria’s reserves opened above $42 billion was in 2013, with over $45 billion as the opening balance for the year.
For 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018, the reserves stood at $40.6 billion, $34.2 billion, $28.2 billion, 27.9 billion, $38.9 billion and $43.1 billion respectively.
The reserves, which currently stand at $43,057,191,024, was at $43,116,863,593 on December 31, 2018.
Despite shedding $18.55 million between the last trading day of 2018 and the first trading day of 2019, the forex reserve still stands at the highest January figure in six years.
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Recall that the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele has repeatedly said he would not float the naira but defend it and ultimately prioritise same above building reserves.
In 2018, Godwin Emefiele, governor of the central bank made it clear that the apex bank, under his leadership, would prioritise defending the Naira over building reserves.
“We are going to need to build buffers but unfortunately I must say that we are in a period where it is difficult to talk about building reserves,” he had said.
“You can only build reserve buffers if you want to hold on to the reserves while allowing your currency to go and wherever it goes is something else.
“It is a choice we have to make and at this time, the choice for Nigeria is to maintain a stable exchange rate so that businesses can plan and we don’t create problems in the banking system,” he said in a recent event