Nigeria's foreign currency reserves rose to 51.32 billion dollars at the end of December 2007 from 49.96 billion in the preceding month, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said Thursday. The bank said the reserves had grown steadily in the last three years, driven by high crude oil prices in the international market.
The CBN said the reserves level, which hit 45 billion dollars in 2005, dropped to 32 billion dollars after Nigeria paid 12.4 billion dollars in debt owed to governments in the Paris Club of creditors.
It said reserves began to build from April 2006, when the total came to 37 billion dollars. The total then went to 41.95 billion in December 2006 and to 42.65 billion in the first weeks of 2007. The Paris Club in 2005 cancelled 18 billion dollars of Nigeria's debt, leaving a total of 12.4 billion dollars, including arrears and interest.
Nigeria, Africa's biggest oil producer with a daily output of 2.6 million barrels at peak production level, derives around 95 percent of its foreign earnings from the oil sector.