…Interest Rate Raised To 17.5%
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has dismissed the possibility of extending or shifting the deadline on the deposit of the old naira notes.
Godwin Emefiele, CBN Governor apologised to Nigerians for not extending the deadline but stated that 100 days from when the announcement was made to the expiration date was enough for Nigerians to deposit their old notes.
He assured Nigerians that the ongoing sensitisation will continue after the 31st of January, 2023 deadline.
The apex bank said it has received between N1.3 trillion to N1.5 trillion so far but expects it will recover over N2 trillion after January 31 deadline.
Speaking to journalists at the end of the first Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) in Abuja on Tuesday, Emefiele also disclosed that the Committee has decided to aggressively increase the interest rate to 17.5 percent.
Emefiele noted that despite the drop in inflation in December to 21.34 percent there was “no reason to celebrate”.
The policy-setting committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) raised the monetary policy rate (MPR), which measures interest rate, from 16.5 percent to 17.5 percent to tame rising inflation.
In December, Nigeria’s inflation rate fell slightly from 21.47 percent to 21.34 percent.
The monetary policy rate (MPR) is the baseline interest rate in an economy, every other interest rate used within an economy is built on it.
Godwin Emefiele, governor of the apex bank, announced the development to journalists on Tuesday after the committee’s meeting at the CBN headquarters in Abuja.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Senate, has urged the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN to extend the mop-up of old Naira notes to 31st July 2023.
The upper legislative Chamber through an adopted resolution arrived at the new deadline after a thorough debate.
This was against the backdrop of the earlier resolution in December 2022 which the lawmakers said, was jettisoned by the Apex bank.
The redesign has been trailed by heavy criticisms, citing the timing as insensitive as a result of the general election coming up next month.
