The Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria has increased the benchmark interest rate by 400 basis points to a record 22.75 percent.
The CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, disclosed this while reading the communiqué of the first MPC meeting of the year on Tuesday in Abuja.
Addressing journalists at the end of the two-day meeting in Abuja, Cardoso said the committee voted to adjust the asymmetric corridor around the MPR to +100 to -700 from plus 100 to -300 basis points and raised the cash reserve ratio from 32.5 percent to 45 percent
At the last meeting in July 2023, the MPC, headed by the former acting governor of the apex bank, Folashodun Shonubi, increased the monetary policy rate by 25 basis points to 18.75 percent, from 18.5 percent in May last year.
The capital requirement ratio was retained at 32.5 percent while the liquidity ratio stood at 30 percent.
Since then, the MPR has risen from 13 percent in May 2022 to 18.75 percent in July 2023 when the last MPC was held.
President Bola Tinubu had said interest rates needed to be reduced to increase investment and consumer purchasing in ways that sustain the economy at a higher level.