CBN raises interest rate to 22.75%

Advertisements

The Monetary Policy Committee, MPC, of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, increased the Monetary Policy Rate, MPR, by four hundred basis points to 22.75 percent from 18.75 percent.

This was disclosed by the Governor of the CBN, Yemi Cardoso, after the first MPC meeting for the year in Abuja on Tuesday.

The CBN stated that, “All 12 members of the committee decided to further tighten monetary policy by raising the MPR by 400 basis points to 22.75 per cent from 18.75 per cent. Adjust the asymmetric corridor around the MPR to +100 to -700 from plus 100 to -300 basis points.”

The MPR has been 18.75 percent since the last MPC meeting between 24th and 25th July 2023.

According to him, with inflation at 29.90 percent, the new MPR is part of moves to tackle the country’s inflation.

Cardoso said the Cash Reserve Ratio(CRR) has been raised to forty-five percent while the liquidity ratio was left unchanged at thirty percent.

He also said over $26 billion has passed through the crypto app Binance Nigeria in the last four years.

Cardoso, who addressed the press after his first MPC meeting as chairman, stated that, “In the case of Binance, in the last one year, 26 billion dollars has passed through Binance Nigeria from sources and users who we cannot adequately identify.”

He, however, exonerated himself and his team from blame over the current hardships in the country.

But he said, “We are determined to ensure that we work hard to get out of the mess that Nigeria is in. We assumed responsibility in a time of crisis of confidence; there was a crisis of confidence and you may all want to go to bed and wish that crisis of confidence was not there but it was, and we can’t turn back the clock.

“All we can do is do the difficult things to make a bad situation better and I do believe that the efforts that we are making are beginning to bring back confidence because to be frank, without confidence in your business, you are not going to get far.”