Victor EzejaThe Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will hold its 294th meeting on Monday, 25 March and Tuesday, 26 March 2024.
The apex bank made this known in a statement released on Tuesday, 19 March 2024, which said the meeting will take place at MPC Meeting Room, 11th Floor, CBN Headquarters, Abuja.
The MPC is the apex bank’s highest policy-making committee formed to assess the financial and economic landscape and decide on the best course of action for short to medium-term policy.
The committee is also responsible for reviewing and changing the CBN’s monetary policy framework in line with what is needed at a time.
The committee meets every two months to decide on the monetary policy rate (MPR) for the nation, which is crucial to the central bank’s duty to maintain price stability.
The CBN had held its last MPC meeting on February 26 and February 27. The 293rd meeting was the first since Olayemi Cardoso became the apex bank’s governor.
At the meeting, MPC members voted to raise the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR), the benchmark interest rate, to 400 basis points from 18.75 per cent to 22.75 per cent.
The committee also increased the cash reserve ratio (CRR) from 32.5 percent to 45 percent, while retaining the liquidity rate at 30 percent.
While briefing on the meeting outcome, the CBN governor had said the bank has embarked on a monetary policy tightening in a bid to fight the surging inflation with its impact on the economy. At the time of making the decision last month, the inflation was 29.9 percent. However, the latest data released by the National Bureau of Statistics last week Friday indicated a further increase in the inflation rate to 37.92 percent in February.
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With the outcome, some analysts have expressed fears that the MPC might further hike the MPR as it combats inflation. Their fears were informed by the fact that during the last meeting, Cardoso, who chaired the meeting for the first time, voted for a 425-basis-points hike to 23 per cent. However, other members of the committee settled for 400 basis-points increase to 22.75 per cent.
The increase took economic analysts by surprise with many contending that the rate hike will not have any impact on taming inflation because it is cost-driven and many businesses are in the informal sector who do not have access to bank credits.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with six years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Masters degree in Mass Communication.
