Cardoso Restores Nigeria’s Net FX Reserves to $40 Billion to Solidify Macro Shield

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In a major milestone for Nigeria’s economic stabilization agenda, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Olayemi Cardoso announced that the country’s net foreign exchange reserves have surged to approximately $40 billion.

The disclosure, made on Thursday in Lagos, represents a significant recovery from the beginning of the current administration’s economic reforms, when net reserves hovered at a critical low of just $3 billion.

Governor Cardoso noted that the rapid rebuilding of the country’s external liquidity buffers has successfully restored order to the foreign exchange market. Concurrently, Nigeria’s gross external reserves have climbed to roughly $52 billion as of Wednesday, providing a highly liquid shield to defend the Naira against external macroeconomic shocks.

Putting the JP Morgan Panic to Rest

The $40 billion net figure carries significant psychological weight for domestic and international capital markets.

“When we started, the net exchange reserves figure was in the region of about $3 billion-plus,” Cardoso recalled, pointing out that the initial low estimate—originally published in a controversial August 2023 analysis by J.P.Morgan —had triggered widespread panic, hoarding, and speculative attacks against the local currency.

By cleaning up legacy forward contract backlogs, introducing strict documentation standards through the revised Foreign Exchange Manual, and aggressively raising the benchmark interest rate to attract Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI) carry trades, the apex bank has transformed its balance sheet.

The transition from $3 billion to $40 billion in net buffers confirms that Nigeria’s core external accounts have been structurally repaired, shifting the currency’s backing from short-term swap liabilities to solid, unencumbered dollar…