Nigeria’s FOREX hits $40.159b on Tinubu’s reforms – Presidency 

…Says ” No alternative to reforms”

Presidency has attributed the increase in Nigeria’s FOREX reserves from $37.195 billion on July 1, 2025, to $40.159 billion on August 7, to ongoing economic reforms by President Bola Tinubu’s administration.

Bayo Onanuga, writing on his X handle, on Monday, cited recently released data by the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN, about movement in reserves published by the Central Bank of Nigeria on its website today.

According to Onanuga, ” When President Tinubu took over on 29 May 2023, the reserve was $32 billion, with most of it encumbered.

” Surely, the management of the economy is in good hands, as positive indicators abound in other sectors.”

OOtegaOgra, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Digital Strategy Engagement and Communications, noted  that ” economic reform is never painless”

Otega, writing on his X handle, said that every action that has faced deep distortions has faced the same choice: take the hard medicine early, or delay and pay much more later.

According to him, ” Some politicians today are selling the ‘gentle’ path.

“Peter Obi says keep subsidies for a while, Atiku Abubakar says guide the currency quietly, Rotimi Amaechi and Nasir El-Rufai say push the hard work into another year. It sounds safe. But history is clear and that road ends in disaster.”

The Presidential aide, while citing the Bulgarian experience, noted that the country had ” tried it in 1990. They freed some prices but kept subsidies, exactly as Peter Obi proposes. They held a soft currency peg without the reserves to defend it, just as Atiku suggests for the naira.

“They delayed tough reforms like Amaechi and El-Rufai advise. Six years later, inflation had exploded past 2,000 percent, the currency was worthless, shops were empty, pensions were destroyed, and the politicians who promised a soft landing had vanished.”

He, however, noted that Nigeria is on a different road today.

” From his first day in office, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu removed the petrol subsidy draining over four trillion naira a year, let the naira find its real value, restored fiscal discipline, and cleared over seven billion dollars in FX backlogs.

” Those decisions brought Nigeria off IATA’s blacklist, attracted $5.6 billion in inflows in late 2024, more than the previous two years combined, and grew non-oil tax revenue by more than twenty per cent.

“These are real wins, already happening. Yet this is the moment when the Association of Displaced Politicians will tell us to stop. They will push Bulgaria 1990 in a new wrapper. They will push it as an “acceptable” naira rate, a “phased” subsidy removal, and slowing reforms to “protect the people.” In reality, it is comfort now and collapse later.

He stated that “Nigeria must hold the line. Keep subsidy savings transparent and tied to visible projects. Keep the currency market-driven. Keep monetary policy tight until inflation falls within a credible band. This is how we earn lasting investor trust and create an economy that is resilient, competitive, and not hostage to oil prices alone.”

“The choice is simple. Pain now with a recovery we can see, or comfort now with a collapse we cannot control. Bulgaria 1990 is the warning. Nigeria 2023 is the opportunity. We are already making in months the progress that took years for others.

” If we have the discipline to finish this, we will not just avoid Bulgaria’s trap, but we will write the modern African recovery story the world will study. This is the best time to bet on Nigeria”