Nigeria expects to receive $10 billion of inflows in the coming weeks that will help ease a liquidity crunch that’s pummeled the naira.
The government has a “line of sight” on the inflows into the country “in weeks rather than months,” Finance Minister Wale Edun said at the Nigerian Economic Summit in the capital, Abuja, on Monday.
The measures will add to other steps being taken by the government to boost foreign-exchange liquidity, including improving market transparency and allowing domestic entities to issue foreign-exchange instruments, he said.
The naira slid to the brink of 1,000 per dollar on the official market on Oct. 20 amid insatiable demand for the greenback. The decline came a week after the central bank ended curbs on using dollars to buy dozens of imported items, while this time of year typically sees Nigerians making payments for tuition at foreign schools and universities, adding to demand.