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Nigeria’s external reserves declined significantly by about $1.19 billion in the last three weeks plus.
This is according to the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, gross external reserves data.
According to the data, the reserves dropped to $39.723 billion as of January 31st 2025, from $40.877 billion at the end of December 2024.
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The downward movement in the nation’s foreign currency reserves was revealed as the CBN is yet to publish the position of the external reserves four days into the new month of February.
Despite the decline in the country’s external reserves, the Naira had remained relatively stable at below the N1,500 per dollar mark as of February 3, 2025.
The development comes as the Bismarck Rewane-led Financial Derivatives Company, FDC, in its 2025-2026 outlook, expects Nigeria’s gross external reserves to drop by 11.47 percent in 2025 to $36.21 billion and 2026 at $37.65 billion from a high of $40.9 billion in 2024.
The FDC analysts also expect that the Dollar/Naira exchange rate will average at N1,586 in 2025 and N1,575 in 2026 as against the average exchange rate of N1,615 in 2024.
The naira continued its decline against the dollar at the official foreign exchange market on Monday.
FMDQ data showed that the naira weakened to N1,548.89 against the dollar on Monday from N1,543.03 exchanged last week Friday.
This indicated that the naira fell by N5.86 compared to N1,543.03 traded at the close of last Friday.
Similarly, on the black market, the naira closed at N1,667 per dollar on Monday from N1,665.
However, the naira had been fairly stable between N1,545 and N1,660 per dollar at the official and parallel foreign exchange markets, respectively.
