Nigeria’s FX inflow in Q1 2024 was $24bn, says Cardoso

Olayemi Cardoso, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), says the country recorded a total foreign exchange inflow of about $24 billion in the first quarter (Q1) of 2024.

Cardoso made this known during an interview with Bloomberg TV on Tuesday.

The CBN governor said the monetary policy tools employed by the apex bank are showing positive impacts on the FX market.

According to Cardoso, the FX inflow of Q1 2024 is about 50 percent above the inflows recorded in previous quarters up to 2021.

“The tools are having a positive impact. So we believe that continuing on this trajectory, we believe that liquidity will continue to grow,” he said.

Cardoso said CBN has set up a committee to facilitate more inflow of diaspora funds into the official FX market.

He said the committee reported directly to him with the sole objective of doubling the inflow of foreign exchange from the international monetary operations.

The governor also said the committee has begun to yield positive outcomes with an increase in inflow from Nigerians in the diaspora.

“We’ve had a recognition of the huge role the Nigerian diasporans play in remitting tremendous amounts of money into the system over some time,” he said.

“We set up a committee which reports directly to me to double the amount of foreign exchange inflow coming from the IMTO who service that segment of the autonomous players.

“Capital inflows are very important. And the reason why is that in the case of Nigeria, the pass-through from the foreign exchange rate into inflation is quite significant. We believe that this is an area outside of the normal day-to-day operations that NNPC and exporters will help in closing the gap.

“Already, it’s beginning to bring about results. Again, we are confident that with these kinds of measurements, liquidity will increase in our market.”

Based on the data published on the CBN website, the country’s FX reserves stood at $33.91 billion as of June 24.

In March, the apex bank said the economy recorded over $1.5 billion in FX inflow in the same month, indicating its monetary policy initiatives are effective.