Obinna Chima
Nigeria’s external reserves has risen to a three-year high of $33.112 billion as of October 12, according to figure obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) website.
The sustained accretion in the reserves is driven majorly by increased foreign currency inflows into the Nigerian fixed income securities market, the stability in crude oil prices as well as increased crude oil production.
CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele at the weekend expressed optimism that fundamentals of the Nigerian economy would continue its positive momentum.
“For me, what is gratifying is that in the midst of global recovery, Nigeria itself has shown signs of recovery, especially the turnaround in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) position, from a negative position to about 0.55 per cent. That for me shows that we are in the right position,” Emefiele had said while briefing journalists in Washington DC.
He also revealed that some foreign direct investors were interested in investing in the country’s infrastructure as well as agriculture sectors.
Responding to a question on his projection for the naira, Emefiele pointed out that as accretion to the external reserves continues and the economic fundamentals get stronger, the nation’s currency would definitely strengthen.
He said the central bank would continue to monitor the banks to ensure that are no threats that would alter the strategic health of the industry, “to the point where we begin to think about some threats that will distabilise the system and therefore create problems for the economy.”
He urged Nigerians living abroad to continue to remit foreign currencies to the country, just as he revealed plans to develop a policy that would link the country’s credit bureaux system to foreign borrowing.
“We are working on how to actually link our credit bureau arrangement with foreign borrowing arrangement, so that once there is a linkage between Nigeria and the foreign credit system, it is easy for them to even borrow from Nigeria and also get some form of attachment to the credit that they have abroad either in the United States or the United Kingdom. With that, it should be easy for them to access credit, then begin to build their businesses so that they can retire into Nigeria rather than retire abroad,” Emefiele said.
