The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says the country’s external reserves have climbed to a new height of $40.4bn for the first time in four years.
Godwin Emefiele, the CBN governor, had at the Annual Bankers’ Dinner of the Chartered Institute of Bankers in Lagos last November, projected that the foreign exchange reserves would hit the $40bn mark before the end of 2018.
The apex bank, in a statement on Monday, stated that the external reserves reached $40.4bn on Friday, January 5, 2018.
It said it was an increase of about $1bn between December 2017 and January 2018.
According to data on the CBN website, the foreign exchange reserves, which stood at $38.765bn on December 29, 2017, rose to $39.074bn on January 4.
The reserves had risen by 50 per cent in the last one year to hit $38.73bn on December 28, 2017.
The foreign reserves gained $12.9bn between December 2016 and December 2017, according to the data.
Between January and October 2017, the reserves rose by $8bn, indicating a 30.9 per cent increase when it recorded $33.83bn on October 31.