The Central Bank of Nigeria has said that the nation’s external reserves stood at $36.395bn as of January 27, 2021.
According to the CBN, the figure is a huge improvement from the $35.373bn of December 31, 2020.
The figure, which was $34.94bn at the end of November 2020, reflected improvement in crude oil prices, partial global economic recovery amid optimism over the discovery and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines by most developed economies.
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Financial Street checks reveal that Nigeria needs the external reserves at $40bn to adequately meet some of the demands that piled up since 2020 when oil prices crashed and the pandemic caused major economic lockdowns.
Meanwhile, the exchange rate at the black market depreciated at N480/$1 and official rate N478/$1.
Manufacturers Association of Nigeria had listed difficulty in having access to foreign exchange to pay for their imports as their biggest challenge.
CBN is expected to devalue the naira by as much as 10 per cent this year in the face of lingering dollar shortage in the country, according to a survey by Bloomberg.
The exchange rate disparity between the parallel market and the official market is about N85.87, representing a 21.8 per cent devaluation differential.
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