The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has disclosed that the nation’s foreign exchange reserve has risen to US$47.3billion as at 5 April 2018 from US$23 billion recorded in October 2016 .

Even as it assured that the country’s foreign reserves is likely going to reach $50 billion later in the year.

Declaring open of a workshop for Finance Correspondents and Business editor held in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State Capital, the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele said the workshop which was titled ‘Sustaining economic growth beyond recession exit’ was apt especially for country like Nigeria that had exited recession.

According to him, the turn around in the Nigeria economic fortune was as a result of aggressive measures adopted to rescue the economy.

“In light of these and other policy responses, we are delighted that the economy has turned the corner with our worst days clearly behind us. For example:

GDP recovered after five quarters of continuous contraction recording positive growths of 0.7 and 1.4 percent in quarters two and three of 2017, respectively, and signaling an exit from the recession.

Inflation declined from a peak of 18.7 percent in January 2017 to 14.3 in December 2017.

Exchange Rate appreciated significantly from over N525/US$1 in February 2017 to about N360/US$1 today, tapering premium across various windows and segments of the market.

FX Supply has improved since the establishment of the I&E Window, with autonomous inflows of over US$20 billion through this window alone from April 2017 to date among others”, he acclaimed.

Emefiele who was by the Deputy Governor, Corporate Services, Mr. Edward Adamu while proffering solution on sustainability of the current economic situation stated that a strong policy coordination between the fiscal and monetary authorities.

He pointed that there was a need for policy makers to be vigilant so that the economy would not slide into recession again.

what must be done to ensure that the country should not fall back into another recession, he said, “The first thing we need to do is to remain vigilant. Those of us who have been entrusted with leadership and policy making responsibilities must neither become complacent nor over-confident.

“We must not be quick to discard the restrictive measures, which aided our recovery, simply because the metrics have improved.”

Emefiele said the apex bank would continue to fine-tune its policies and strategies based on the evolving developments in the economy.

“We will remain proactive in ensuring that the welfare of Nigerians is optimised at any point in time. The bank will continue to provide access to much needed credit to sectors with the potential to create jobs on a mass scale,” he added.