Nigeria’s reserves end 2015 at 10-year low

Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves fell by $5,183,866,731 in 2015, closing the year at a 10-year low.

The decline, which amounted to a 15-percent drop in 12 months, is the lowest that the nation has seen since 2005, when the reserves closed the year at $27.1 billion.

For 2005, the reserves opened at about $19.59 billion, gaining $7 billion in a 12-month period.

According to the latest figures from the Central Bank of Nigeria, the reserves opened on January 5, 2015 at $34,493,455,664 and closed the year on December 23 at $29,309,588,933.

These figures are a relative improvement on the 2014 decline, where the reserves opened on January 2, 2014 at $43.505 billion and closed the year at $34,468,621,681 on December 31.

This is the lowest the foreign reserves would close in nine years, closing at figures less than $30 billion in 2005.

In January 2014, Muhammad Sanusi II, Emir of Kano, lamented the decline in foreign reserves for 2013, warning that measures had to be taken to curb such decline, which was just a 2.23 percent decline at the time.

As the CBN at the time, Sanusi noted that the reserves closed 2013 at $42.85 billion, as against $43.83 billion recorded at end of 2012.

The CBN, under the leadership of Godwin Emefiele, spent most of the year defending the naira from further devaluation, after devaluing it in February.

As the reserves continue to fall, the CBN may be forced to devalue the naira, allowing the market to dictate its real price.