The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said Nigeria’s external reserves has fallen by $313m in March. .
The CBN’s figure obtained on Thursday indicated that the foreign exchange reserves, which commenced March 1, 2022, at $39.86bn, fell to $39.55bn as of March 30, 2022.
Prices of crude oil began to fluctuate as the global energy sector continues to experience disruptions following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Brent, the crude which Nigeria’s oil is priced, which had jumped above $100 per barrel in the past few weeks, hit $120 as of Thursday.
The CBN had expressed worries over the effects of massive oil theft on the oil sector and the external reserves.
Also, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited said that the country had lamented that the nation was not meeting its OPEC crude oil production quota lately.
The Governor, CBN, Godwin Emefiele, had at the last Monetary Policy Committee meeting expressed concerns over oil production and external reserves.
He said the MPC noted with concern the decrease in the level of the external reserves.
Emefiele said, “The MPC worries that, whereas global prices have gone up, this has been compounded by the shortage of supply of petroleum products.
“In the short-run, the MPC urges the NNPC to take urgent steps to ensure an adequate supply of petroleum products in Nigeria so as to reduce the rate of arbitrary increase in the price of petroleum products by oil marketers.”
