By Adedapo Adesanya
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will hold its first Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting under its current governor, Mr Olayemi Cardoso, on Monday, February 26, 2024.
Mr Cardoso took over the affairs of the central bank in September 2023 but has not held a rate-setting meeting, a decision he defended, saying it is supposed to be held only four times a year.
Investors will be actively waiting for the next signal from the central bank amid a worrying foreign exchange (FX) market, high inflation, and an increased call to halt interest rate hikes, which currently stand at 18.75 per cent.
The last meeting was held in July 2023, less than two months after President Bola Tinubu took office, and the lender postponed the interest rate-setting meeting scheduled for September 25, 2023.
At the meeting, the then-acting governor of the CBN, Mr Folashodun Shonubi, announced a moderate hike of 25 basis points to the interest rate following considerations bordering on supporting investment, anchoring inflation expectations, narrowing the negative interest rate gap, and improving investor confidence by the committee.
The MPC left the Cash Reserve Ratio unchanged at 32.5 per cent and the liquidity ratio at 30 per cent.
He said the asymmetric corridor has been narrowed from +100/-700 basis points to +100/-300 basis points.
With inflation currently at 28.92 per cent, calls have increased for the central bank under Mr Cardoso to spring into action.
Modupe Gbadeyanka