foreign exchange - The African Mirror

Oct

2023

Nigeria expects $10 bln in forex inflows in weeks

NIGERIA expects $10 billion in foreign currency inflows in the next few weeks to ease liquidity in a foreign exchange market that has cramped growth in Africa's biggest economy, finance minister Wale Edun said. The West African country has faced chronic dollar shortages after foreign investors exited local assets during a period of low oil prices. Since then, investors have yet to return and the central bank has not yet settled outstanding demand for dollars from foreign investors seeking to repatriate funds or airlines seeking to send money from ticket sales abroad. As a result of the shortages, some businesses…

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

Zimbabwe Jan-Sept diaspora remittances up 45% y/y due to lockdowns

BUSINESS

ZIMBABWE's central bank governor says official remittances from the diaspora were up 45% during the January-September period from last year at $657.7 million as COVID-19 lockdowns forced people to send cash home via official channels. Diaspora remittances are an important source of foreign exchange for the southern African country, which is in the grip of its worst economic crisis in more than a decade that has seen worsened dollar shortages. Most of Zimbabwe's more than 2 million-strong diaspora live in South Africa, many of them illegally, and often send money via unofficial channels, including buses and trucks. When Zimbabwe and…

Aug

2020

By The African Mirror

South Sudan central bank runs out of foreign exchange reserves

BUSINESS

DENIS DUMO South Sudan, battered by years of conflict and corruption, has run out of foreign exchange reserves and can no longer stop the pound's depreciation, a senior central bank official in the oil-producing has revealed. Daniel Kech Pouch, the bank's second deputy governor, told a news conference that the country's oil revenues had dropped, hitting its foreign exchange reserves. South Sudan gets almost all of its revenue from crude oil, but current output, at around 180,000 barrels per day, has plummeted from a peak of 250,000 bpd before the outbreak of conflict in 2013, according to official figures. "It…