November 18, (THEWILL) — The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Olayemi Cardoso, has disclosed that the bank’s foreign reserves increased to $46.7 billion as of November 2025, the highest in about eight years, providing Nigeria with the ability to import for over 10 months.
Cardoso made the disclosure on Tuesday at the 20th Monetary Policy Department (MPD) anniversary colloquium, titled “Monetary Policy in Nigeria: Past, Present and Future,” at the CBN headquarters in Abuja.
“Foreign reserves have risen to $46.7 billion as of November 2025. This provides 10.3 months of import cover in goods and services, and is the highest amount that we have achieved since 2018,” Cardoso, who was represented at the colloquium by the CBN deputy governor, economic policy, Dr Mohammed Sani Abdullahi, stated.
Cardoso attributed the sustained inflows and renewed investor participation to the ongoing economic reforms on both the monetary and fiscal sides of the economy.
THEWILL recalls that S&P Global Ratings said on Friday, November 14, 2025, that it had revised Nigeria’s sovereign credit outlook from “stable” to “positive,” while affirming its long- and short-term ratings at ‘B-/B’, citing significant rise in foreign reserves as a major reason for the upgrade.
Sam Diala is a Bloomberg Certified Financial Journalist with over a decade of experience in reporting Business and Economy. He is Business Editor at THEWILL Newspaper, and believes that work, not wishes, creates wealth.
