Nigeria’s Foreign Reserves Grow Amid Low Oil Prices

Nigeria’s external reserves have improved, figures released by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has shown.

According to CBN, the nation’s foreign exchange reserves stood at $29.61 billion as at May 27. The bank said the figure was an increase of 0.3 percent from $29.52 billion on April 27.

It said the $29.61 billion represented the ‘gross’ amount while 28.74 billion was ‘liquid’ while 875 million as ‘blocked’.

The forex reserves which has depleted over the last two years due to its use to defend the Naira. The Naira had been under pressure from market speculation, pre-election spending and fall in crude oil prices.

According to the CBN, the continuous pressure on the foreign exchange market is due to the rise in the internal demand for the dollar.