The foreign external reserves of Nigeria now stands at 45 billion U.S. dollars, a report posted on the website of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said on Tuesday.

As of last week Wednesday the west African country had a 2.87 percent increase over the preceding figure of 45.35 billion dollars on Jan. 22, according to the data given on the CBN website.

Last year, foreign external reserves of Nigeria had grown by 34. 76 percent to over 44 billion dollars, the apex bank said, while expressing hope for a continued upward trend in 2013 as oil prices rise at the international market.

In spite of the steady rise due to reasonably high oil prices and stability in the foreign exchange market, Nigeria's external reserves could not meet up with the 50 billion dollars target set by the government by the end of year 2012, the bank noted.

In 2008, before the global financial meltdown, Nigeria's external reserves had peaked at 62 billion dollars and for over 27 months the reserves had stood relatively low compared to the present figure.

For more than two years after the global economic meltdown, the highest external reserves recorded by Nigeria stood at 45.68 billion dollars as of November 2012. For this reason, the Nigerian government planned to grow the west African country's reserves to at least 50 billion dollars by the end of 2012Enditem