Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves rose by $1.436 billion to $39.333 billion between July 4, 2014, and August 5, 2014 representing an increase of 3.65 percent over $37.897 billion recorded in July this year.
According to latest data on external sector developments, the foreign reserves rose to $40.20 billion as at July 18, 2014, up by $2.89 billion or 7.74 per cent from $37.31 billion at end-June 2014.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had on June 23, 2014 raised the minimum capital requirement for BDC operators from N10million to N35 million.
It also raised mandatory caution fee from 10,000 dollars to N35million, bringing the total requirement to N70 million.
It followed this up with slashing of dollar sales to Bureau De Change (BDC) operators since July by 70 per cent from $50,000 per week to $15,000.
While some financial experts attributed the increase in foreign reserves to the recent clampdown on BDC operators, the apex bank agrees that the increase was due to the drop in drawdowns in CBN’s programme of defending the local currency.
The Bank added that the reserves had steadily grown in the last two months due to increased accretion and moderation in the rate of depletion.
However, the naira has remained stable at around N161-N162 to the dollar on the interbank market and N155.75 on the official window on the back of support from dollar sales by some oil companies and offshore investors buying local debt.
As the deadline for recapitalization of BDCs elapsed on July 31, the apex regulator insists that modifications to the guidelines on the regulation of Bureaux de Change in Nigeria are aimed at conserving the country’s foreign reserves, among other objectives.
This position was made known by the CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, during an interactive session with the House of Representatives Committee on Banking and Currency.
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Nigeria Foreign reserves rises by $1.4bn in 1month
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