Aduragbemi Omiyale
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
A global investment firm, JP Morgan, has estimated the net foreign exchange (FX) reserves of Nigeria at $3.7 billion.
Data obtained by Business Post from the website of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) showed that as of Thursday, August 17, 2023, the country’s external reserves stood at $33.8 billion.
But a report issued on the same day by the American multinational financial services company said the net amount in the nation’s buffers 10 per cent of what is quoted on the apex bank’s platform.
Recall that the 2022 financial statements of the CBN released some days ago revealed that JP Morgan is one of the foreign organisations owned by Nigeria’s banking sector regulator.
In the report, the firm said its findings showed that Nigeria’s forex reserves went as low as $3.7 billion last year from $14.0 billion in the previous year.
“Based on partial information from the audited financial accounts, we estimate that CBN’s net FX reserves were around $3.7 billion at the end of last year from $14.0 billion at the end-2021,” the report from JP Morgan stated.
It further stated that, “FX forwards ($6.84 billion), securities lending ($5.5 billion) and currency swaps ($21.3 billion); and estimating currency swaps by backing out FX forwards and outstanding OTC Futures balances from an overall aggregate published in the financial accounts.”
