CBN reserves hit $55.6bn as naira gap drops below 2%

‎Three years after a near-collapse in dollar liquidity, the apex bank says Nigeria’s forex market is steadier, with a few warnings attached
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‎• The gap between official and parallel rates has shrunk from 68.2% to under 2%
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‎• Gross reserves stand at $55.60bn, up from net usable reserves of just $859m in 2023
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‎• Autonomous sources now supply nearly 68% of forex inflows, but the CBN says portfolio flows can reverse
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‎The Central Bank of Nigeria says the forex market that once left businesses guessing which rate applied to them has become far more stable. That is according to a keynote address sighted by Confiance News.
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‎Deputy Governor, Corporate Services, Dr. Muhammad Sani Abdullahi, delivered the speech on September 29, 2026 at the 38th Seminar for Finance Correspondents and Business Editors.
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‎How bad it was in 2023
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‎Confiance News learned from the address that the gap between official and parallel rates averaged over 60% in 2022 and passed 100% at points late in the year. The World Bank estimated that this setup cost about 3% of GDP in implicit subsidy.
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‎Meanwhile, net usable reserves stood at $859m in the second quarter of 2023, after short-term obligations. Outstanding forward claims had also grown beyond $7bn.
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‎The reforms behind the shift
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‎The bank consolidated the forex windows in June 2023 and moved to a willing-buyer, willing-seller framework. It then lifted restrictions on 43 import categories and settled the forward claims it found valid. Furthermore, it introduced the Electronic Foreign Exchange Matching System and the Nigerian FX Code.
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‎Where the dollars now come from
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‎Figures obtained by Confiance News show that $7.33bn of the $10.82bn recorded in July 2026 came from autonomous sources. Remittances through International Money Transfer Operators hit $950m that month. Net foreign portfolio inflows reached $6.31bn between January and August.
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‎Gross reserves stood at $55.60bn on September 11, 2026. The end-August stock covered 11.3 months of imports.
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‎The caveat
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‎However, the CBN did not present this as a finished job. Portfolio flows can reverse, Abdullahi cautioned, and the improvement reflects several influences beyond monetary policy, including oil receipts and global conditions.