Muda Yusuf Credits Foreign Reserve Growth for Naira’s Recent Strength

The Director of the Centre for Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), Muda Yusuf, on Sunday revealed that the surge in the foreign reserves boasted the Nigerian Naira against the United States Dollar.

According to official data from the FX market last week Monday, Naira made a significant gain against the dollar from N1,660/$1 to N1,535/$1.

He noted that the improvement came as no surprise due to over $40 billion gained through external reserves in the last few weeks.

He said, “You can ascribe this to several issues. First, we have seen an improvement in our reserves, which reached the $40bn mark a few weeks ago, and that implies that the CBN has more power to intervene in the market, and in truth, the CBN has been intervening in the market to stabilise the currency.

“I would like to observe that in the last five months or so, we have seen relative stability in the naira exchange rate, which is a welcome development.

“Now, we are beginning to see a strengthening of the currency, so the level of our reserves has contributed to this as it elevates the confidence of foreign investors.

“Then, in the last few months, as a result of reforms in the foreign exchange market, we are seeing a consistent improvement in autonomous foreign exchange inflow in the country, especially from the international money transfer operators.”

Compared to the previous day’s rate of ₦1,800/€1, the naira dropped N10 versus the euro, trading at ₦1,810/€1.

The Bloomberg BMatch system shows that the naira has improved from N1,672.69 on November 29, 2024, the last trading day of the month, to N1,535 after the platform went online on Monday, an 8.97 percent gain, or N137.69.