Records Show CBN Received Cash Inflow Of $62.7 billion in 2016

Data from the Central Bank of Nigeria’s website reveals the Apex bank received a total cash inflow of about $62.7 billion for the year ended December 2016. The data also shows the CBN recorded a total outflow of about $25.5 billion in 2016 leaving the bank with a net inflow of about $37.1 billion. The CBN however claims it has about $25.8 billion in reserves as at December 31, 2016.

December 2016, recorded the highest inflow of forex at about $7.5 billion, the most since September 2015. Largest outflow was in June 2016 at $2.7 billion. Curiously a sum of about $2.39 billion was recorded as “Non-oil inflow other official receipts” and was the highest for a single month since 2005. Some analysts opined this may be one of the reasons why the CBN reserves have spiked of late.

The data also shows that a total of $21 billion was received into the CBN from oil and non oil sources broken down into $10.1 billion and $10.8 billion respectively. Inflow from Autonomous sources was about $41.8 billion with about $24.1 billion sourced domiciliary accounts.

Out of the $25.5 billion in outflows, the data shows about $15 billion was sold by the CBN in 2016 through the interbank markets and currency swaps. The CBN also spent about $3 billion on JV Cash Calls.

The Central Bank of Nigeria in 2016 adopted a rash of currency policies that are thought to have exacerbated the currency crisis. In, June 2016, it adopted a flexible exchange rate policy that many thought would usher in a full float of the naira in the hope that it will lure back foreign investors. Unfortunately, rather than allow the currency float freely to allow for a market discovery, it has created a situation where we now have over 6 exchange rates with the gap between the official rates and the black market rates widen to almost N200/$1.

Capital Importation was just above $1 billion, the lowest since 2010. The equities market only attracted about $850 million, the lowest since 2007 when they started collating this data. This also compares negatively to 2013 and 2014 when the equities market attracted about $15.1 billion and $11.4 billion respectively.