Naira defense gulps $3.25bn in April —Report

THE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said it spent $3.25 billion defending the Naira at the foreign exchange (forex) market in April 2019.

In its Economic report for the month of April, containing data on monetary aggregates, government spending and foreign exchange flows available on CBN’s website, the bank stated that Foreign exchange sales to the authorised dealers amounted to $3.25 billion, compared with $3.75 billion in the month of May 2019.

The report also showed that Forex inflow into the CBN in April 2019 were $5.26 billion compared with outflow of $4.90 billion from CBN resulting in a net inflow of $0.35 billion.

Similarly, aggregate foreign exchange inflow into and outflow from the economy were $14.45 billion and $5.14 billion, respectively, resulting in a net inflow of $9.31 billion.

The CBN also stated that federally-collected revenue in April 2019 was below the monthly budget estimate by 28.2 per cent, but exceeded the receipts collected in March 2019 by 3.6 per cent.

Federal Government retained revenue for the review month was N325.58 billion, while estimated total expenditure was N636.78 billion, resulting in an estimated deficit of N311.20 billion.

• Emefiele, continuity and strategic growth

“At N795.31 billion, the estimated federally-collected revenue  (gross) in April 2019 fell below the provisional monthly budget estimate of N1.107 billion by 28.2 per cent,” the report stated in part.

However, it exceeded the receipt of N767.90 billion in the preceding  month by 3.6 per cent.

The decrease, relative to the provisional monthly budget estimate, was attributed to a shortfall in both oil and non-oil revenue.

In the same vein, the banking system according to the CBN, advanced a total of N23.955 billion credit to the private sector. This, compared on month-on-month basis, is a 0.9 per cent decrease compared with the decline of 0.6 per cent at the end of the corresponding period of 2018.

It, however, contrasted with the growth of 5.3 per cent at the end of the preceding month. The decline in private sector credit, relative to the preceding month’s level, was attributed to the 0.5 per cent fall in claims on the core private sector.

Also, at N2.153 billion, currency-in-circulation, on month-on-month basis, fell by 3.9 per cent at end-March 2019. This was in contrast with the growth of 4.8 per cent and 5.3 per cent at the end of the preceding month and the corresponding period of 2018, respectively.