By Adedapo Adesanya
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has moved the first monthly Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting for the year to a different date earlier announced to the public.
In a circular released by the apex bank, it was stated that the two-day meeting, which would be the 271st edition, has been rescheduled to take place on Thursday, January 23, and Friday, January 24, 2020.
The central bank had initially asked members of the committee to gather for the meeting on Monday, January 20 and Tuesday, January 21 in Abuja to deliberate on some issues affecting the economy, especially the monetary aspect.
However, the bank changed its mind and fixed the meeting for another day, without giving any reason for this.
The apex bank only said in the statement that, “The 271st Meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has been rescheduled to hold” at the “MPC Meeting Room, 11th Floor, Wing C, CBN Corporate Headquarters, Abuja.”
It further said members of the group will meet on the first day of the meeting, Thursday, January 23, 2020, at 10:00 am, while the time for day 2 of the gathering, Friday, January 24, 2020 is 8:00 am.
Business Post reports that at the last meeting, the MPC, by a unanimous vote, retained the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) at 13.5 percent and also held other policy parameters constant, including the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) at 22.5 percent. The Liquidity Ratio (LR) was left at 30 percent, while the Asymmetric Corridor was kept at +200-500 basis points around the MPR.
Last week, the CBN disclosed that it has retained the minimum 65 percent of Loan Deposit Ratio (LDR) in the interim in a circular signed by its Director of Banking Supervision, Mr Ahmad Abdullahi.
The bank explained that it had noticed remarkable increase in the size of gross credit by the Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) to customers and directed all DMBs to maintain this level as well as ensure that average daily figures were applied to assess compliance.
