Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Olayemi Cardoso, has disclosed that the country recorded a total foreign exchange inflow of about $24 billion in the first quarter (Q1) of 2024.
He this known in an interview with Bloomberg TV.
Cardoso said the FX inflow of Q1 2024 is about 50 per cent above the inflows recorded in previous quarters up to 2021.
He further stated that the monetary policy tools employed by the apex bank were showing positive impacts on the FX market.
“So, we believe that continuing on this trajectory, we believe that liquidity will continue to grow,” he said.
Cardoso said the CBN has set up a committee to facilitate more inflow of diaspora funds into the official FX market and that the committee reports directly to him with the sole objective of doubling the inflow of foreign exchange from the international monetary operations.
The CBN governor said the efforts of the committee had begun to yield positive outcomes with an increase in inflow from Nigerians in the diaspora.
“We’ve had a recognition of the huge role the Nigerian diasporans play in remitting tremendous amounts of money into the system over some time,” he said.
“We set up a committee which reports directly to me to double the amount of foreign exchange inflow coming from the IMTO who service that segment of the autonomous players.
“Capital inflows are very important. And the reason why is that in the case of Nigeria, the pass-through from the foreign exchange rate into inflation is quite significant. We believe that this is an area outside of the normal day-to-day operations that NNPC and exporters will help in closing the gap.
“Already, it’s beginning to bring about results. Again, we are confident that with these kinds of measurements, liquidity will increase in our market.”