FOREX Inflows Into Nigeria Increase By 64% To $30B In The Q3 Of 2021

Forex Inflows – The amount of foreign exchange that entered Nigeria in the third quarter of 2021 increased by 64% to $30.18 billion, up from $18.4 billion in the previous quarter. In the review period, there was a surge attributed to newly acquired federal government loans.

iexclusive News Nigeria reports that this is according to the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) statistical bulletin for the third quarter of 2021.

Dollar inflows of $30.18 billion in the third quarter of 2021 represent Nigeria’s highest quarterly inflow since Q1 2020, prior to the effect of the covid-19 pandemic. Similarly, year on year, the inflow increased by 14% compared to the $26.47 billion recorded in the same period of 2020.

During the period under review, the Nigerian government secured two external loans, which summed up to $7.34 billion, representing $3.34 billion IMF Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) in August and $4 billion Eurobond in September 2021.

Inflows into Nigeria through the Central Bank of Nigeria totaled $16.83 billion, accounting for 55.8 percent of total FX inflows during the review period.

Furthermore, the $16.83 billion inflow through the CBN in Q3 2021 is 158% and 141% higher than the $6.51 billion and $6.98 billion recorded in Q2 2021 and Q3 2020, respectively.

Inflows from autonomous sources accounted for 44.2 percent of total inflows, totaling $13.35 billion. In comparison to the previous quarter, it increased by 12 percent to $11.89 billion in Q2 2021.

Inflows from autonomous sources, on the other hand, fell by 32% compared to the previous year’s corresponding period of $19.49 billion.

Foreign exchange received from the exportation of non-oil items, capital inflows, and invisibles are examples of autonomous sources of FX. Indivisibles also include capital imports, remittances, and other OTC purchases, according to a further breakdown.

Furthermore, the rise in CBN forex inflows can be attributed to a significant increase in flows through the Treasury Single Account (TSA) and Third Part Funds in September 2021.

Funds through the TSA and Third Party Funds, in particular, increased by more than 600 percent to $2.47 billion in September of the review year, while a total of $3.2 billion was recorded in Q3 2021, accounting for 11 percent of total inflows recorded in the quarter under review.

Following the ban on the sale of foreign currency to BDC operators in the country, the Central Bank of Nigeria has continued to intervene in the official forex market. Similarly, $32 billion was exchanged in the official Window, while the CBN supplied $13.16 million to the market between January and September 2021.

Why is this important?

The increase in forex inflows into the country is beneficial to the Nigerian economy because it will help boost liquidity in the system. In this case, the Central Bank used newly acquired loans to boost the country’s external reserves while intervening in the market to keep the local currency stable.