Large foreign reserves don’t mean Nigeria is better off — Chike-Obi

Former Fidelity Bank chairman Mustafa Chike-Obi has questioned the economic benefits of Nigeria's foreign reserves, arguing that maintaining reserves of between $52 billion and $53 billion could cost the country more than $10 billion annually. Speaking on the Policy Without Politics podcast, he said the reserves generate an average return of about three per cent on liquid assets held abroad, while the naira used to finance them carries a cost of about 20 per cent. According to him, the difference between the returns on foreign reserve assets and the cost of funding them creates a substantial financial burden for the country.

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