Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, has recast diaspora remittances as a strategic pillar of Nigeria’s foreign exchange stability, saying the country is now deliberately building its external buffers around sustained inflows from Nigerians abroad.
Speaking recently at a media briefing in Washington DC at the close of the IMF–World Bank Spring Meetings, Cardoso said remittances are no longer being treated as auxiliary inflows, but as a core component of Nigeria’s evolving FX architecture.
He insisted that despite recent fluctuations in external reserves, there is no structural weakness in the economy, stressing that Nigeria’s buffers remain above the International Monetary Fund’s adequacy threshold.
“What worries me is the anxiety in Nigeria, not the fundamentals,” he said, seeking to reframe public concern over reserve movements.
Central to Nigeria’s external stability strategy is a growing stream of remittances from its global diaspora, currently estimated at about $600 million monthly.
Cardoso said the ambition is to significantly expand that flow to $1 billion monthly by the end of the year, describing diaspora inflows as one of the most dependable sources of foreign exchange support in an increasingly volatile global environment.
