Naira appreciation: Nigeria gets fresh $600m into FX reserves

“In the next couple of days, I think between yesterday and
today, we had about $600 million into the reserves account, so I wouldn’t let
people get too excited about it. That’s where we’re going. So the shifts you’ve
seen in our reserves have nothing to do with defending Naira,” he said.

However, Cardoso noted that the apex bank is focused on
getting the foreign exchange market to independence, where market forces
control it.

“It is not my intention to defend the Naira. We’re pushing
the markets to a willing buyer / willing seller price discovery. And
ultimately, I perceive a future where the central bank will not need to
intervene.

“What is important to us is that there’s sufficient
liquidity in the market, which I’ve spoken about here today,” he said.

He added that the CBN’s recent sales of FX were part of its
efforts to catalyse the Bureau de Change market.

Recall that Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves stood at
$32.29 billion as of April 15; however, with the additional $600 million
inflow, the external reserves would rise to about $33.49 billion.