External Reserves Falls to $23.948 Billion

• External Reserves Falls to $23.948 Billion

Nigeria’s external reserves diminished by 2.8 per cent in one month to $23.948 billion as at October 27, 2016, compared with the $24.615 billion it was as at September 27, 2016.

The latest external reserves position released by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) showed that the reserves derived mostly from the proceeds of crude oil sales fell by $667 million in the last one month, as the country’s earnings continued to shrink.

In spite of the recent appreciation of crude oil price in the global market, quantity shock impacted negatively on allocation to the three tiers of government for the month of September was shared about a fortnight ago as the spate of attacks on oil installations and pipeline vandalism showed no sign of abating.

From N510.270 billion shared by the three tiers of government for August allocations, the sum of N420 billion was approved for sharing at the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting in Abuja recently, indicating a decline of N90.2 billion.

The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, Dr. Mahmoud Isa-Dutse had stated that there was a decrease of oil for export in the month of June by 1.15 million barrels due to attacks on oil assets.

President Muhammadu Buhari last week wrote the National Assembly seeking approval to borrow $29.96 billion under the External Borrowing (Rolling) Plan to address the infrastructure deficit in the health, education, water resources and other sectors.

The president’s letter, which was read at plenary by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, indicated that the $29.96 billion would be for proposed projects and programmes loan of $11.274 billion, $10.686 billion for special national infrastructure projects, Eurobonds of $4.5 billion, and federal government budget support of $3.5 billion.