The Nigerian Minister of Finance, Okonjo Iweala has said that for Nigeria’s economy to retain its current stability, the excess crude account which has been depleted to the tune of $4.1billion needs to be jerked up to $5billion.
This off course is against the backdrop of a falling Oil price which places more pressure on out foreign reserves as the CBN jostles to defend the Naira.
NOI
“We have calculated that in order to help us regain this stability, we need a minimum of about US$ 5 billion. It helps to cushion our exchange rate so if we go and withdraw it abruptly beyond that amount it causes a problem. You know we went down to $2 billion last year and then we built it up to $9 billion and there was insistence that we must share, which made it to come down to $2 billion but we later at least build it back to $5billion. Right now we are at $4.1 billion”.
She currently did not give any specifics regarding how we intend to source for this $5 billion if oil prices continue to fall.
