Nigeria's Foreign Exchange Reserves Plummet To $32 billion, Lowest In 6 Years

April 15 recorded the lowest level of Nigeria's foreign reserves in more than six years, at $32.29 billion.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) released updated data on March 18. The Cable Index noted that the reserves decreased from $34.44 billion, which was the highest level in 2024, to $32.2 billion on April 15.

There was a $2,15 billion decline in foreign reserves, or 6.26 percent.

This concludes a run of increases of $1.28 billion in foreign exchange reserves from February 5 to March 18.

The CBN had ascribed the expansion to rising international investor interest in local assets, such as government debt instruments, and remittance payments from Nigerians living outside.

 

The CBN declared N32.28 billion for the foreign reserves on September 9, 2017, the last time they were at this level ($32.29 billion).

The CBN's activity in the parallel market to try and crash the foreign exchange rate coincides with the drop in foreign reserves.

The top bank gave each bureau de change (BDC) operator $20,000 on February 27 at a rate of N1,301/$. The BDCs purchased the second $10,000 tranche at a rate of N1,251/$.

The apex bank started the third tranche of sales to BDCs at N1,101/$ on April 8.

The naira strengthened against the dollar in the black market during this intervention, rising from N1,900 per dollar on February 21 to N1,100/$ on April 13.

In the same time frame, the local currency at the official window increased from N1,551.24/$ to N1,136.04/$ per dollar.