Nigeria attracted $42.7 billion foreign exchange inflow in Q1

Autonomous sources account for $27.71 billion of foreign exchange inflow

The Nigerian economy attracted a total of $42.7 billion between January and March this year, according to a Q1 Economic report by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.

The forex inflow with the period showed a 1 per cent increase compared to Q4 of 2019 and 13.8 per cent increase compared to Q1 of 2019.

The development was attributed to an 11.2 per cent increase in inflow through the bank.

A breakdown of the foreign exchange showed that oil sector receipts, at $3.36 billion or 7.9 per cent of the total, declined by 7.6 per cent and 21.1 per cent below the levels in the preceding quarter and the corresponding period of 2019, respectively.

However, it showed that non-oil public sector inflow, at $11.65 billion or 27.3 per cent of total in the review period, rose by 18.1 per cent above the level in fourth quarter of 2019, but was a decline of 17.6 per cent below the level in the corresponding period of 2019.

Also, autonomous inflow, at $27.71 billion in first quarter of 2020, declined by 3.8 per cent, compared with the level in the preceding quarter.

But autonomous inflow rose by 44.7 per cent above the level in the corresponding period of 2019, while inflow from autonomous sources accounted for 64.9 per cent of the total, according to the report.

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The data showed that aggregate forex inflow into the CBN within the period under review, amounted to $15.01 billion, showing an increase of 11.2 per cent above the level in the fourth quarter of 2019, but a decrease of 18.4 per cent below the level in the corresponding period of 2019.

“The development, relative to the preceding quarter, reflected, mainly, the rise in non-oil receipts, driven by proceeds from Treasury Single Account (TSA) and third party receipts. Aggregate outflow from the CBN was $17.62 billion, indicating an increase of 9.4 per cent and 8.1 per cent above the levels in the preceding quarter and the corresponding period of 2019, respectively.

“The rise in outflow, relative to the level in the preceding quarter, reflected, mainly, the increase in interbank utilisation, external debt service, national priority projects, foreign exchange special payment, bank and Special Drawing Rights (SDR) charges/Fees and funds returned to remitta.

“Overall, foreign exchange flows through the bank, in the review period, resulted in a net outflow of $2.61 billion, compared with the net outflow of $2.60 billion in the preceding quarter, but was a net inflow of $2.08 billion in the corresponding period of 2019,” the report stated.