Economy

Nigeria’s external reserves have witnessed a surge in recent times, reaching a seven-year high of $46.7 billion as of November 14. According to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the figure can provide 10.3 months of import cover in goods and services. The CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, hinted at this at the 20th Anniversary of the Monetary Policy Department meeting in November. He said sustained inflows and renewed investor participation across various asset classes supported the surge, stressing that the accretion reflects renewed investor confidence, improved oil receipts, and stronger balance-of-payments inflows. Cardoso added that the surge in the external reserves has been a key pillar behind the naira’s stabilisation, noting that the gap between the official and Bureau de Change windows has narrowed to below two per cent. Check by Pinnacle Daily shows that publicly available data on the CBN website indicates that Nigeria's gross external reserves are currently at $45.44 billion as of December 11, and were at $43.64 billion as of November 14. Why the reserve surged Why the figure disclosed by Cardoso was not reflected on the CBN website for public consumption, the federal government at the time successfully issued a $2.35 billion Eurobond, which was oversubscribed by $10.65 billion. The Debt Management Office (DMO) announced this on Wednesday, November 5, Pinnacle Daily reported. Analysts presumed that the Eurobond loan, which will further worsen Nigeria's debt profile, put at N152 trillion as at the end of the second quarter, strengthened the external reserves. External reserves usage …