Nigeria’s Foreign Reserve rises to $30bn

LAGOS (Reuters) – Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves rose $30.69 billion by July 22, up 5.6 per cent from $29.03 billion a month earlier, latest data from the central bank revealed.

However, the forex reserves of Africa’s top crude exporter were down 20.9 per cent from $$38.8 billion a year ago.

The growth in reserves for the month was attributed to efforts of the present government to plug leakage and demand management by the central bank.

The central bank restricted access to foreign exchange by last month and introduced tight control of the foreign exchange market to curb speculation and conserves forex reserves.