Nigeria’s foreign reserves has been steadily rising and is now at $42.8bn, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) reports.
The disclosure was made by the CBN spokesperson, Isaac Okoroafor, on Wednesday, during a meeting with the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) in Abuja.
He attributed the growth to CBN policies that target a reduction in the importation of goods, especially food produced in the country.
He said: “CBN decided to go into the funding of rice and other agricultural produce because we felt that food supply is key if price stability is to be maintained – food makes up a disproportionately large portion of the basket of prices in the country. We decided to target food supply to bring down inflation.
“Second, we went into this business of funding agriculture because we felt that food, especially rice, was a key component of importation in Nigeria. It was, therefore, a key component in the depletion of our foreign reserves.
“So we felt if we could deal with rice importation and replace it with local rice production, we would be working at rebuilding our reserves. And I tell you, we have succeeded in meeting those two objectives. Our reserves are up.
‘’The reserves have gone to $42.8 billion as at yesterday (Tuesday) and you can see the inflation figures have been dropping and we expect this to continue throughout the year.”
