Matthew Otoijagha
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says the current state of the nation’s foreign reserves can support 16 months of imports. According to the Balance of Payments report released on the apex bank’s website, the nation’s foreign reserves stood at $46.7 billion at the end of March 2018.
Central banks have reserves in foreign currencies to meet its external obligations, which include international payment obligations, import financing. “The stock of external reserves as at end of March 2018 stood at US$46,730.54 million, indicating an accretion of 18.7% when compared with the preceding quarter,” the report read.
“When compared with the corresponding period of 2017, it recorded a higher accretion of 55.8%. The reserves could finance approximately 16.2 months of imports, compared with 15.6 and 11.7 months of imports cover for the preceding quarter and the corresponding period of 2017, respectively.”
The report says, total export earnings increased by 10% between the fourth quarter of 2017 and the first quarter of 2018. The revenue from crude oil export in the first quarter of 2018 was $13.4 billion an increase from the $12.1 billion recorded in the fourth quarter of 2017.
Non-oil export revenue also increased from $860.44 million in the fourth quarter to $967.08 million in the first quarter of 2018. Payments made on import of goods (free on board) increased 13.9% to $8.6 billion above the $7.5 billion recorded in the preceding quarter. This was due to a 99.5% increase recorded on imports on petroleum products.