Akwa-Ibom, Jigawa lead as states record $910m forex gain

No fewer than 13 state governments recorded significant Foreign exchange revaluation profits worth N71.59 billion in three months.

This was disclosed through data obtained from the third quarter budget implementation report (July to September) on each state’s website.

The extra-ordinary profits is against the backdrop of foreign exchange revaluation gains arising from depreciation of the Naira which currently sells at N791/$, compared to its 2022 closing rate of N461.50/$1.

On June 14, 2023, the CBN directed Deposit Money Banks to remove the rate cap on the naira at the official Investors and Exporters’ Window of the foreign exchange market to enable its free float against the dollar and other global currencies.

It said, “The Central Bank of Nigeria wishes to inform all authorised dealers and the general public of the following immediate changes to operations in the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market: Abolishment of segmentation. All segments are now collapsed into the Investors and Exporters window.”

Although there are 36 states in Nigeria, Ekiti, Anambra, Rivers, Bayelsa, Benue, Cross Rivers, Delta, Edo, Gombe, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kwara, Lagos, Niger, Ogun, Ondo, Oyo, Taraba, Yobe, Zamfara and Sokoto making a total of 23 sub-nationals didn’t disclose their earnings in the Q3 2023 report yet.

The figure for this new earnings was limited to 13 out of the 36 states in the country.

Among the 13 States, Akwa- Ibom had the highest earning at (N10.2bn), followed by Jigawa (N7.23bn), Imo (N6.26bn).

It was followed by Kogi (N5.92bn), Nasarrawa (N5.75bn), Plateau (N5.65bn), Abia (N5 34bn), Adamawa (5.34bn) Enugu (N5.1bn) and Zamfara (N5.02bn).

It was also observed that Bauchi got the lowest profit of N120m while Ebonyi received N4.79bn, Osun got N4.89bn

The PUNCH findings showed that 14 states have also received a total of N86.92bn from forex earnings in the first three quarters of the year.