The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has again raised the Monetary Policy Rate by 200 basis points from 22.75 to 24.75 percent.
Briefing the press on the outcome of the 294th Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting in Abuja, on Tuesday, the Governor of CBN, Mr. Olayemi Cardososo, also announced an adjustment of the asymmetric corridor of +100/-300 basis points.
He said that the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) of Deposit Money Banks was retained at 45 percent, while the CRR for merchant banks was moved from 10 to 14 percent. The Liquidity Ratio was left at 30 percent.
Mr. Cardoso explained that members of the MPC were faced with continuing with the tightening cycle or a hold to see further impact of last month’s rate hike but at the end, after reviewing the balance of risks, it was decided that a further tightening was the way to go.
All valid FX claim cleared
The CBN boss insisted that the backlog of all valid FX transactions had been cleared, adding that security agencies were investigating infractions discovered by the audit firm.
His words, “We got a reputable audit firm to look into the documents and they did a thorough job and came out to say that a number of these transactions did not qualify.
