The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has revealed that Nigeria’s foreign reserves fell by 8.46 percent or $3.43 billion in 2022.
The CBN disclosed this in its movement on external reserves figures published on its website.
According to the report, the reserves which stood at $40.52bn as of the end of December 31, 2021, ended December 29, 2022 at $37.09bn.
The reserves drop came at a time oil the major source of the reserve’s funds rallied above $100 per barrel thanks to the Russian-Ukraine war.
While Nigeria struggled to take advantage of the oil price rally, other oil producing countries around the world were overflowed with cash.
Countries such as Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia among others all reported a net profit jump of more than 100 percent.
On the home front, during the year, CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele revealed that NNPC had stopped remitting oil returns to the reserves.
At the last Monetary Policy Committee meeting of the CBN in November, a member of the MPC, Robert Asogwa, said, “The recent drop in external reserves is, however, linked to the decline in oil exports even at a time of higher oil prices.
He, therefore, called on the government to fix the crude oil theft in the Niger Delta region to help boost the reserves in 2023.
