Nigeria’s forex reserves, a marker of the economy’s ability to fulfil its foreign obligations continue to nose dive, falling by $591.6million dollars in less than three weeks to $27.266billion as at Friday 22 April.
According to figures published by the Central Bank of Nigeria, the reserve on 1 April stood at $27.858 billion, and showed a great resilience compared with the figure at the beginning of March, which stood at $27.822billion.
Nigeria opened the year with $28.978 billion.
Nigeria is facing its greatest economic crisis in recent memory, as oil income has reduced drastically since the great crash of second half of 2014.
Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed paints a graphic picture of the economic disaster at a Town Hall meeting in lagos today, when he urged grumbling compatriots to trade places with Nigeria:
“Think about this, if you lose 70 per cent of your monthly salary, your life can never be the same again,’’ Mohammed said.
“Our nation’s economy or whatever is left of it, poses a great challenge. For one, we have lost a sizeable chunk of our earnings to the massive crash in the price of oil.
He noted that at its worst level, oil crashed from over 100 dollars to about 30 dollars a barrel.
“It (oil) has recently inched up to about 40 dollars per barrel but that is still very low, compared to a high of over 100 dollars per barrel. For a mono-product economy, this is nothing short of disaster,’’ the minister said.
The reserves will deplete further in the next few weeks as the nation has been hampered by sabotage of oil infrastructure in the Niger Delta to take advantage of recent weeks of rising prices. About 400,000 barrels of oil out of two million produced daily have been shut down, as export terminals and pipelines have been vandalised, requiring weeks of reconstruction.