According to latest figures released by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Thursday, Nigeria’s foreign reserves fell by $1.26 billion from $41.76 billion on October 2 to $40.5 billion as at October 30.

Data from the apex bank contained in its economic report for third quarter of 2019 showed that the gross external reserves fell in the period under review. The reserves which had continued to shrink in recent months dropped from N45.14 billion as of July 8 to $44.65 billion as of August 8 2019.

“Gross external reserves were $40.9 billion as at September 25, 2019. This indicated a decrease of 8.6 percent, compared with the level in the second quarter of 2019.

“The external reserves position would cover 5.2 months of import of goods and services or 9.2 months of import of goods only, based on the estimated value of import for the second quarter of 2019.

“A breakdown of the external reserves by ownership showed that the share of federation reserves was $0.27bn (0.7 percent); Federal Government reserves, $7.0bn (17.1 percent) and the CBN reserves, $33.62bn (82.2 per cent) of the total,” the report partly read.