The conduct of the political class could mar or make the robustness and steady growth recorded by Nigeria’s economy, including having a direct impact on foreign reserves balance as Nigeria inches closer to the 2027 general election, Finance Expert and Economy Analyst, Dr. Paul Alaje, has cautioned.
He warned that should politicians not restrain from spending dollar to prosecute political campaigns, it would exert pressure on foreign reserves and dwindle it down. As of November 12, 2025, Nigeria’s gross foreign reserves was approximately $43.366 billion, an increase from a previous balance of $43.348 billion due to additional inflows.
The figure provides an import cover of approximately 11 months as of October 2024. Speaking with journalists on the sidelines of financial reporting training organized jointly by Premium Times’ Academy and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in Abuja, Alaje acknowledged steady progress recorded by the economy on the backdrop of monetary policy tools deployed by the current administration at the apex bank.
He, however, warned that, for the progress not to be eroded, both INEC and political parties must come together in warning politicians to spend naira currency and not dollars for their election campaign. He said as someone who diligently tracked election activities for over two decades, election expenses were prosecuted largely in dollar terms.
“The point I’m making is that over the years, since 1998 I’ve been tracking elections. Money spent on elections did a lot to the economy. I saw a lot of money that went into the election. “Dollars started flowing into our economy. The worst was 2010 and 2014, they spent a lot.We saw the same thing in 2023 all of these have an impact after the election year.
Come next year, you will see what happens to our economy. “You see that the pre-election year, most of the time, not all the time, has the highest economic growth. Immediately after the pre election year, you start seeing economic nose diving. If there are global shocks, it makes Nigeria impact to be more sporadic . What is causing all of this? We’ve already depleted our reserve in an election year.
