The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has expressed its commitment to embracing the ‘Presidential Executive Order 09’, saying it will improve Nigeria’s revenue and external reserves.
The CBN governor, Olayemi Cardoso, disclosed this on Tuesday while addressing the media at the end of the 304th Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting held in Abuja.
The apex bank governor stated that the presidential order has potential impacts on improving revenue and accretion to reserves.
President Bola Tinubu recently signed the ‘Presidential Executive Order 09’, which requires all oil and gas revenues due to Nigeria to be paid directly into the Federation Account.
On Tuesday, the CBN governor cited the prospective impacts of oil and gas revenues on Nigeria’s gross external reserves.
He added that the MPC committee acknowledged and embraced the newly issued ‘Presidential Executive Order 09’, which redirects oil and gas revenues into Federation accounts.
“Members also welcomed the newly issued Presidential Executive Order 09, which redirects oil and gas revenues into Federation accounts. The committee acknowledged the potential impact of this order in improving fiscal revenue and accretion to reserves,” Mr Cardoso said.
Gross external reserves
Mr Cardoso explained that at $50.45 billion, Nigeria gross external reserves provide an import cover of 9.68 months for goods and services for the country
The current reserve value is the highest level recorded since 14 May 2013, when the country’s reserves stood at about $48.51 billion, according to the CBN.
The reserves closed in 2025 at about $45.5 billion, up from $40.8 billion at the start of the year, and have continued to rise steadily in early 2026.
“Gross external reserves rose significantly to $50.45 billion as of February 16, 2026, the highest in 13 years. This provides an import cover of 9.68 months for goods and services,” the CBN governor said.
While explaining the factors behind the surge in Nigeria’s gross external reserves, Mr Cardoso cited the positive outcomes of macroeconomics, particularly the surge in non-oil exports.
He also noted that the bank has demonstrated confidence in its markets operation, which the CBN said has helped in optimising the market prospects.
“We’ve seen very positive signals with respect to the way the macros are developing. There have been favourable trade developments. The current account is in a healthy surplus.
“And, of course, the non-oil exports have also gone up, respectively. We are all, something I talk about all the time, which is the issue of the diaspora remittances, which again is going up very respectively indeed.
“Of course, with all this and underpinning all this, quite frankly, is market confidence. Without market confidence, no matter what you do, you will find you will significantly sub-optimise,” he said.
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International fora
The governor also highlighted CBN’s visits to international fora and engagement with global economic actors, which he said has paid off in Nigeria’s foreign exchange system.
“We, over the period of time, have embarked on a great number of international forums where we’ve gone out, told our story, and we’ve made promises.
“We ensured that we stuck to those promises and were transparent as we could to engender positive market sentiment and have economic actors believe in the framework in which we were setting out for the future of our foreign exchange system. So that all, I believe, has paid off quite respectively,” he stated.
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