Nigeria’s foreign exchange (forex) reserves have increased to $27.223 billion as at January 16, 2017, according to latest figures on the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) website.

The growth in the reserves, derived majorly from the proceeds of crude oil sales represented an increase by $1.380 billion or 5.3 per cent in the last 17 days, compared with the $25.843 billion that it was as at December 30, 2015.

It was also indicative that the drop in militancy in the Niger Delta and rising oil exports led to the accretion in the forex reserves.

Oil prices settled up on Monday, as Saudi Arabia’s commitments to reducing production offset a report forecasting U.S. output would again rise this year.

Benchmark Brent crude oil LCOc1 was up 41 cents a barrel, or 0.7 percent, at $55.86 and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude rose 27 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $52.64 a barrel, on Monday.
With the oil market entering 2017 with prices above $50 per barrel, analysts are optimistic about high prices this year.

Meanwhile, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo tuesday said the country needs to close the gap between the official and black market rates for the naira against the dollar “very soon”, as Africa’s largest economy grapples with inflation and the risks of devaluation.

“The gap between the official and parallel market isn’t helpful,” Reuters quoted Osinbajo to have told reporters at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

“If you look at the economic recovery and growth plan, it is the expectation that this is a conversation we are having with central bank.”

The naira’s official rate, controlled by the government is currently at N305 to the dollar since it was devalued in June. But that is still 40 percent stronger than rates on the parallel market, about N497 to the dollar, a gap that is discouraging investment from overseas and leaving Nigeria starved of foreign currency.

The official and black market naira foreign exchange rates will be “unified” this year, but there is no time frame for when it could happen, said Osinbajo.

Financial institutions, among others, have argued that Nigeria must allow its currency to float freely to solve its foreign exchange woes, a measure which has met opposition from President Muhammadu Buhari.

Nigeria’s lack of dollars has been exacerbated by a crunch in oil production, caused by militant attacks on facilities in the crude oil-rich regions in the South-east Delta region, and low global prices for oil, on which the government depends for 70 percent of its revenues.

“The current output is 1.7-1.8 million barrels per day and it could improve very quickly as soon as we sort out things in the Delta,” Osinbajo said.

In an effort to end militant attacks and remain “actively engaged”, Osinbajo travelled to the Niger Delta region for talks with militants earlier this week.

Additionally, Nigeria aims to sell Eurobonds worth $1 billion in March, said Osinbajo, rather than February as originally hoped, which could help refill the government’s coffers.

http://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2017/01/18/nigerias-external-reserves-hit-27-2bn/

Really






Is it good or bad

I don't know why! I jus ve the feeling Buhhari will solve the nations economic problem.

This man should sell dollars to importers to reduce inflation,i don't fancy this nonsense,Egypt infact went to borrow 30 billion dollars to sort their dollar shortage problem
Egypt current reserve is presently $19 billion and its economy is 1000% healthier than Nigeria at the moment.You don't save money while your family are suffering
Don't quote me if you are not ready to defend yourself

Good news. But dia is hunger in d land

bettercreature:
This man should sell dollars to importers to reduce inflation,i don't fancy this nonsense,Egypt infact went to borrow 30 billion dollars to sort their dollar shortage problem
Egypt current reserve is presently $19 billion and its economy is 1000% healthier than Nigeria at the moment.You don't save money while your family are suffering

I don't know why I think differently from average Nigerians. I believe importation on non-essential commodities should be banned outrightly and attract death penalty for defaulters.

Abagworo:


I don't know why I think differently from average Nigerians. I believe importation on non-essential commodities should be banned outrightly and attract death penalty for defaulters.

Non-essential things like what? Give me example what we are making in Nigeria?Are we making cars? i will making small scale machines? just tell me what we are making,This government need to force than inflation by all means,otherwise people will keep suffering
You dont sort your problems overnight its a gradual process

bettercreature:
This man should sell dollars to importers to reduce inflation,i don't fancy this nonsense,Egypt infact went to borrow 30 billion dollars to sort their dollar shortage problem
Egypt current reserve is presently $19 billion and its economy is 1000% healthier than Nigeria at the moment.You don't save money while your family are suffering

But when Nigeria want to borrow $30b did your senators agreed? only telling us the disadvantages of doing so

adem30:


But when Nigeria want to borrow $30b did your senators agreed? only telling us the disadvantages of doing so

Saraki is working against APC and can never be trusted reasons Tinubu never wanted him to get to that position and now Buhari is paying for his i dont care attitude
You don't play Neutral when it comes to lower and upper chambers matter

bettercreature:
Non-essential things like what? Give me example what we are making in Nigeria?Are we making cars? i will making small scale machines? just tell me what we are making,This government need to force than inflation by all means,otherwise people will keep suffering
You dont sort your problems overnight its a gradual process

Sell dollars to Brazilian hair importers, Chinese nail importers and designer jeans importers ABI?

Egypt has heavy industries going on 50 years based on a steel plant they built during the time of Hafez Assad. They are fairly self sufficient in local manufacturing and they have a large Diaspora in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries sending money home. They also have some oil not much. The Nigerian economy is bigger but they have better fundamentals.

I can't say much,but surely this is not a good news for naysayers and the irredentist.

If you understand FOREX market you'll appreciate this positive sourge.
For practical purposes, it is instructive to note that the economic stability of any nation depend largely on her reserves and not the capacity to spend.

Adminisher:


Sell dollars to Brazilian hair importers, Chinese nail importers and designer jeans importers ABI?

Egypt has heavy industries going on 50 years based on a steel plant they built during the time of Hafez Assad. They are fairly self sufficient in local manufacturing and they have a large Diaspora in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries sending money home. They also have some oil not much. The Nigerian economy is bigger but they have better fundamentals.

They have removed 40 non essential goods so i dont know what you are talking about,keep smiling while you are suffering.You should give us example of a country where there are 5 to 6 different exchange rates.This is not the right time to save money its a time to get out of recession

Nice one

Good news!

Imagine that Buhari was our president from 2010 to 2015, when oil price was on the average of $100Per Barrel.

With all the money that Jonathan made, he had only 2 fighter jets (one couldn't fly out of the two) now Buhari has increased the fleet to 9.

Jonathan met over $60B in Excess Crude A/c ($20B) and External Reserve ( Over $40B) yet he left about $28 B despite selling at good rate for more than 4 years.

No good road, he was owing contractors for more than 3 years, he couldn't not do 2nd Niger Bridge ( he had to use PPP), etc

Jonathan was an error.

It increasing by the day..

Spend, spend spend is what got us here.
If the reserve had been grown like this by savings we wont be in this situation.

Sale dollar sale dollar, look for local alternative jare. If you cant get and insist on foreign made then be ready to get your dollars frm wherever

DaudaAbu:
It increasing by the day..

Spend, spend spend is what got us here.
If the reserve had been grown like this by savings we wont be in this situation.

Sale dollar sale dollar, look for local alternative jare. If you cant get and insist on foreign made then be ready to get your dollars frm wherever

If not for the Niger-Delta militancy, perhaps we would have had, since Buhari got to power, about $50B in our reserve by now.

That could have cushioned the effects of international economic challenge.

With the way we are going now, we might hit $40B before year end.

Note that our output per day is still less than 2.2M barrels per day ( we are between 1.8M to 1.9M).

Corruption is a problem.

I expect good news like this to hit front page.

Let us move away from bad news for a minute.

cc. lalasticlala, Seun

noted pls

veraponpo:


If not for the Niger-Delta militancy, perhaps we would have had, since Buhari got to power, about $50B in our reserve by now.

That could have cushioned the effects of international economic challenge.

With the way we are going now, we might hit $40B before year end.

Note that our output per day is still less than 2.2M barrels per day ( we are between 1.8M to 1.9M).

Corruption is a problem.

Some people jst are allergic to good news.

They say sale dollars, sale dollars the people are suffering.

They prefer to turn nigeria to one big supermarket. Saying what do we peoduce?

As far as dollars is made readily accessible they prefer to impprt toothpick, pencils, matches ,rice, tomatoes , palm oil etc

Why not try and do this things here? (Thank god pencils are now produced in akwa ibom.

how does this affect the fact that the value of our naira keep declining
here in Benin City. one thousand naira is like two hundred naira

External reserve kor, bokoharam ni
The cost of living has escalated and this present government should do something abut it

Adminisher:


Sell dollars to Brazilian hair importers, Chinese nail importers and designer jeans importers ABI?

Egypt has heavy industries going on 50 years based on a steel plant they built during the time of Hafez Assad. They are fairly self sufficient in local manufacturing and they have a large Diaspora in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries sending money home. They also have some oil not much. The Nigerian economy is bigger but they have better fundamentals.

I think you mean well but a bit ignorant
Nigerians abroad send money via 3rd party and get paid in Naira into thier 9ja bank account
Brazilian Hair importers source for Dollars in black mkt
Blk mkt er ja e agents abroad who act as 3rd party money transfer agent .

bettercreature:
They have removed 40 non essential goods so i dont know what you are talking about,keep smiling while you are suffering.You should give us example of a country where there are 5 to 6 different exchange rates.This is not the right time to save money its a time to get out of recession

Do one get out of recession by Forex being provided readily for imports of all sorts?

Even many so called importers are not importing anything, they are round tripping!

bettercreature:
This man should sell dollars to importers to reduce inflation,i don't fancy this nonsense,Egypt infact went to borrow 30 billion dollars to sort their dollar shortage problem
Egypt current reserve is presently $19 billion and its economy is 1000% healthier than Nigeria at the moment.You don't save money while your family are suffering

Manufacturers now have access to dollars, when last did you hear MAN complaining of poor access to USD?

Our Manufacturing PMI grew to 56% in December.

Our only problem is dwindling oil output and price. Oil and gas fell to -22% in the 3rd quarter.

Agriculture and other sectors grew minimally as well

kahal29:
Nigeria’s foreign exchange (forex) reserves have increased to $27.223 billion as at January 16, 2017, according to latest figures on the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) website.

The growth in the reserves, derived majorly from the proceeds of crude oil sales represented an increase by $1.380 billion or 5.3 per cent in the last 17 days, compared with the $25.843 billion that it was as at December 30, 2015.

It was also indicative that the drop in militancy in the Niger Delta and rising oil exports led to the accretion in the forex reserves.

Oil prices settled up on Monday, as Saudi Arabia’s commitments to reducing production offset a report forecasting U.S. output would again rise this year.

Benchmark Brent crude oil LCOc1 was up 41 cents a barrel, or 0.7 percent, at $55.86 and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude rose 27 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $52.64 a barrel, on Monday.
With the oil market entering 2017 with prices above $50 per barrel, analysts are optimistic about high prices this year.

Meanwhile, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo tuesday said the country needs to close the gap between the official and black market rates for the naira against the dollar “very soon”, as Africa’s largest economy grapples with inflation and the risks of devaluation.

“The gap between the official and parallel market isn’t helpful,” Reuters quoted Osinbajo to have told reporters at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

“If you look at the economic recovery and growth plan, it is the expectation that this is a conversation we are having with central bank.”

The naira’s official rate, controlled by the government is currently at N305 to the dollar since it was devalued in June. But that is still 40 percent stronger than rates on the parallel market, about N497 to the dollar, a gap that is discouraging investment from overseas and leaving Nigeria starved of foreign currency.

The official and black market naira foreign exchange rates will be “unified” this year, but there is no time frame for when it could happen, said Osinbajo.

Financial institutions, among others, have argued that Nigeria must allow its currency to float freely to solve its foreign exchange woes, a measure which has met opposition from President Muhammadu Buhari.

Nigeria’s lack of dollars has been exacerbated by a crunch in oil production, caused by militant attacks on facilities in the crude oil-rich regions in the South-east Delta region, and low global prices for oil, on which the government depends for 70 percent of its revenues.

“The current output is 1.7-1.8 million barrels per day and it could improve very quickly as soon as we sort out things in the Delta,” Osinbajo said.

In an effort to end militant attacks and remain “actively engaged”, Osinbajo travelled to the Niger Delta region for talks with militants earlier this week.

Additionally, Nigeria aims to sell Eurobonds worth $1 billion in March, said Osinbajo, rather than February as originally hoped, which could help refill the government’s coffers.

http://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2017/01/18/nigerias-external-reserves-hit-27-2bn/

What is the money doing there? Nigerians are hungry and angry o. #Bringbacktheforeignreserve

Pavore9:


Do one get out of recession by Forex being provided readily for imports of all sorts?

Yes that is the only solution to our problem,Most companies in Nigeria need dollar to import raw materials,they need dollars to import new machine,airline need dollars to repatriate their money,many companies are moving out because of dollar
Exchange rate is the only problem we have in Nigeria at the moment and without 24/7 availability of dollar,Nigeria will never get out of recession,Egypt is a good example

Rubbishh, why not. When CBN is locking all our money in there cupboard

eh

Am tired of reserve hitting this and that.

I wanted to buy sth online I couldn't because of one stupid ban.