Data from the Central Bank of Nigeria has revealed that the nation’s foreign exchange reserves fell by 4.9 per cent to $29.79bn on March 30, from $31.35bn in February.
The external reserves have continued to drop at a faster pace due to low demand for the nation’s crude oil and its falling prices globally and the country derives 70 per cent of its revenue and 90 per cent of its foreign exchange from crude oil.
CBN has been using the reserves to support the naira, which has been affected by the falling global oil prices and uncertainty over the general elections.
The data showed that year-on-year, the reserves fell by 21.3 per cent from $37.83bn in March 2014 to stand at the new balance of $29.79bn on Monday.