Nigeria spent $16bn from reserves in 2011

Nigeria has spent a total of $16 billion of its currency reserves in 2011, as subsidies for petro-products as well as demands by end users at the foreign exchange market, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said.

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi said this at a roundtable meeting between the IMF and the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, yesterday in Lagos.

He said Nigeria’s currencies reserves are depleting rapidly hence the need to remove subsidies on the price of petro-products.

He urged Nigerians to trust the economic team on the controversial petro subsidies and that the team headed by Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala will prove the needed confidence in terms of the deliverables.

In the same vein, Minister of Finance Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala says the Jonathan’s administration will continue to reduce the recurrent expenditure of the fiscal budget and increase capital budget expenditure by at least 10 per cent annually till the end of the current administration.

She said Nigeria should take very seriously the contagious impact of the global economic slowdown and the Eurozone fiscal problems.

On agriculture, the Finance Minister says the commercial banks and the farmers are working on a partnership funding of 30 per cent and 70 per cent to obtain farm implements and other necessities for the current planting season.

Dr Okonjo-Iweala said the nation’s ports are also being reformed and the road network at the Lagos ports being addressed. She said however than some government agencies recently removed from the ports are ‘fighting’ to return for their selfish gains.