The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in its third-quarter economic report, said aggregate foreign exchange inflow stood at $6.97bn.
According to the apex bank, this indicated a decrease of 30.7 percent and 43.6 percent in the second quarter of 2020 and the corresponding quarter of 2019, respectively.
“Foreign exchange inflow through the Central Bank of Nigeria decreased in the third quarter of 2020, largely due to a reduction in non-oil inflow,” the apex bank said.
“The development was attributed to a decline in both oil and non-oil receipts by 9.7 percent and 44.7 percent, respectively, below the levels in the preceding quarter and the corresponding quarter of 2019.”
The CBN said the decrease in non-oil receipts followed reversion to normal trend after the one-off IMF facility in the previous quarter, while that of oil receipts was as a result of the weak global demand for crude oil, owing to fragile global economic recovery.
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Disaggregation of inflow through the bank indicated that oil and non-oil receipts were $2.35bn and $4.62bn, respectively.
Further analysis of non-oil receipts showed that interbank swaps, other official receipts, and TSA and third-party receipts increased by 255.6 percent, 40.4 percent and 6.8 percent to $1.60bn, $0.99bn and $0.95bn over their respective levels in the second quarter of 2020.
However, foreign exchange purchases, Deposit Money Bank cash receipts and unutilised IMTO funds declined by 14.9 percent, 68.1 percent and 11.5 percent to $0.56bn, $0.10bn and $0.24bn, below the levels in the preceding quarter, respectively.
Unutilised funds from FX transactions, returned payments and interest on reserves and investments fell to $0.09bn, $0.02bn and $0.06bn, respectively, below the levels in the preceding quarter.
Aggregate foreign exchange outflow through the CBN declined by 12.6 percent, from $7.95bn in the second quarter of 2020 to $6.95bn in the third quarter of 2020 due to lockdown imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19 lockdown and subsequent reduction in foreign exchange needs by the private and public sectors.
A breakdown of the outflow through the bank during the review period showed that interbank utilisation was $4.37bn; public sector/direct payments ($0.78bn); third party MDA transfers ($0.9bn); external debt service ($0.51bn); forex special payment ($0.05bn); national priority projects ($0.002bn); and bank and SDR charges/Fees ($0.0001bn).
Other sources of outflow through the bank included drawings on L/Cs and funds returned to remitter amounting to $0.33bn and $0.006bn, respectively, in the review period.
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