Eight-Week Slide Ends as Nigeria’s Reserves Gain $181m

Nigeria’s external reserves have recorded their first weekly gain in eight weeks, rising by $181 million to close at $48.544 billion as at Thursday, 14 May 2026, according to the latest data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The rebound ends a prolonged and largely unbroken losing streak that had stripped nearly $1.65 billion from a reserve position that had only recently touched a 13-year high.

The reserves had surged to $50.009 billion on 6 March 2026, its highest level in over a decade, before the decline set in.

The very following week, the position shed $35 million, and what followed was a sustained deterioration that gathered pace through March and April, erasing gains that had taken months to accumulate.

How the Slide Unfolded

Losses accelerated sharply through the middle of March, with the reserves shedding $187 million in the week ending 18 March, followed by a $346 million depletion the week after.

April brought little respite, as the reserves dropped $308 million in the week ended 2 April, then fell a further $325 million by 10 April.

According to the Foreign Reserves Statistics of the CBN analysed by BUSINESS METRICS, smaller but persistent losses continued through the rest of the month, with the position losing $186 million, $149 million, and $109 million in three successive weeks.

By early May, the bleeding had slowed to just $1 million in the week ended 8 May before this week’s reversal finally broke the streak.

Naira Under Pressure Despite the Rebound

The improvement in reserves has not yet translated into relief for the naira, which depreciated 1.0% week-on-week to close at N1,372.00 per dollar as heightened local demand outweighed offshore supply following an Open Market Operations auction conducted during the week.

Pressure was equally visible in the forwards market, where the currency weakened across all tenors, namely: the one-month contract falling 0.7% to N1,394.33 per dollar, the three-month rate slipping 0.6% to N1,432.87, the six-month contract easing 0.7% to N1,489.27, and the one-year forward rate dropping 1.0% to N1,601.92 per dollar.

What Analysts Expect

Despite the naira’s near-term softness, analysts at Cordros Capital are cautiously optimistic, noting that elevated naira yields and a relatively supportive external environment should continue to attract foreign portfolio inflows.

This is despite that the ongoing United States-Iran conflict has introduced a layer of investor caution that may moderate the pace of those inflows compared to earlier in the year.

“We expect the naira to remain broadly stable in the near term, although downside risk persists,” the firm said, adding that should demand pressures re-emerge, the CBN was expected to “undertake measured FX interventions to contain excessive volatility.”