Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has disclosed that the efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari in tightening areas of revenue leakages, have resulted in the increment of Nigeria’s foreign reserves by some $2.88 billion from $29.1 billion to $31.89 billion, from June 6, 2015 to July 7.
Godwin Emefiele, CBN governor, who led top management of the apex bank to a meeting with the Senate, also said “I am delighted to note that with the strong efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari, to block all leakages as well as the Vigilant Demand Management Strategy of the Central bank of Nigeria, we have seen our foreign exchange reserves beginning a gradual recovery”.
“As at the 7th of July, 2015, the reserves stood at $31.89 billion, a trend we find extremely gratifying. Given our understanding that a fall in oil prices transitory but permanent, and that some speculative activities were ongoing in the foreign exchange market, the CBN took a number of proactive actions”, he said.
Emefiele had noted that headline inflation remained stable throughout the year, although it has crept up to the upper limit of Central Bank range of 69 percent.
“Import prices inflation rose to 8.9 percent. Inflation rose gradually to eight percent in December 2014 to nine percent in May, 2015.
Reflecting the sharp fall in oil prices and speculative foreign exchange activities, the external reserves declined from $37.3 billion in June 2014 to $29.1 billion at the end of June of 2015″, he said earlier.