Nigeria’s Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has for the first time disclosed the country’s net foreign exchange reserves, revealing a figure of $34.80 billion at the close of 2025 — a number that on its own exceeds the entire gross reserves Nigeria reported just two years ago, and a disclosure that marks a notable shift in the apex bank’s approach to financial transparency.
CBN Governor Olayemi Cardoso confirmed the net figure in a statement released late on Monday, days after separately disclosing at the bank’s post-Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) briefing on February 24, 2026, that gross external reserves had risen to $50.45 billion as of February 16, the highest level in 13 years.
The gap between the two figures is significant and intentional. Net foreign exchange reserves strip out short-term liabilities including foreign exchange swaps and forward contracts from the gross headline figure, leaving only assets the country can deploy immediately to defend its currency or meet external obligations without unwinding existing commitments. Gross reserves, by contrast, carry no such deductions and have historically been the only number the CBN publicly reported.
The net reserve figure of $34.80 billion at end-2025 exceeded Nigeria’s total gross external reserves of $33.22 billion recorded at the close of 2023, meaning that what Nigeria can actually deploy today surpasses the entire headline reserve stock of just two years ago.
Net reserves climbed from $23.11 billion at end-2024 to $34.80 billion at end-2025, a gain of $11.69 billion or 50.6 percent in one year, while gross external reserves expanded from $40.19 billion to $45.71 billion over the same period, an increase of $5.52 billion. The two series diverging at different rates indicates the CBN has been systematically reducing its short-term foreign exchange liabilities, improving the quality not just the quantity of its buffers.
Cardoso attributed the improvement to stronger transparency and credibility in foreign exchange management. He said the current gross reserves were sufficient to cover approximately 9.68 months of imports, and projected gross reserves could reach $51.04 billion by the end of 2026.
He credited the surge to improved market confidence, saying the CBN had engaged widely with international investors, made firm commitments and ensured policy consistency to drive positive sentiment. “Without market confidence, no matter what you do, you’ll find you will significantly sub-optimise,” he said.
The net reserve disclosure puts Nigeria’s external position in sharper relief compared with regional peers and closes an information gap that analysts and investors had long flagged as a credibility concern.
