Nigeria’s Central Bank has bowed to pressure and is scheduling its first rate hike meeting for February 26-27, 2024. It will be the first rate meeting since July 2023. In December, the Central Bank Governor Yemi Cardoso said monetary transmission mechanisms had rendered the rate meetings “largely ineffective.”
According to a calendar released by the bank today, the CBN is proposing six rate meetings throughout 2024.
Monetary Policy Committee meetings, which set interest rates, is an instrument through which the CBN controls inflation.
Nigeria’s inflation has soared all through 2023 to a 27-year high. While experts who have spoken to TechCabal on inflation figures have predicted interest rate hikes, Yemi Cardoso has held out, failing to call any meeting since his appointment.
Adedayo Bakare, an investment analyst at Money Africa, believes raising interest still holds the key to curbing inflation.
“MPR is not ineffective; the CBN has broken the transmission of MPR to the financial markets and the overall economy,” Bakare said.
