The month of May, 2019 was bullish for Nigeria as monies that came from outside the country was way higher than what was spent on importation. Specifically, the country recorded inflows of $10.22 billion, while outflows stood at just $3.97 billion.
The good news is that outflows is on the increase as it went up by 3.2 per cent, though four per cent lower than the corresponding period in 2018.
By the end of May, net inflow was $6.26 billion. Again, this was higher than the $5.04 billion filed in April 2019 and $5.51 billion recorded in May 2018.
The central bank attributed the increase to the 4.3 percent and 2.6 percent surge in inflows through the Bank and Autonomous sources, respectively.
Inflows through autonomous sources went up by 2.6 percent to $6.21 billion in May 2019. While outflow from autonomous sources declined by 37.8 percent month-on-month to US$0.37 billion.
The CBN sold US$2.04 billion to authorisedforeign exchange (forex) dealers in May as part of its intervention programme to support the Naira. That was lower than the $2.43 billion sold in April..
The apex bank has been able to build the foreign exchange reserves to over $44 billion as sustained oil production amid high oil prices has helped bolstered the reserves and support CBN forex intervention programme.
During the month under review, the average exchange rate of the Naira at the inter-bank, the BDC segment and the “investors” and “exporters” window were N306.95/US$, N359.69/US$ and N360.71/US$, respectively.
