Victor Ezeja
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced that its 297th Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting will hold on Monday, 23 and Tuesday, 24 September 2024.
The MPC meeting will be held at the CBN Headquarters Abuja.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelThis was made known in a notice published on the CBN website on Wednesday.
“This is to inform you that the 297th meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is scheduled to hold as indicated below: Day 1: Monday, September 23, 2024; Time: 10:00am; Day 2: Tuesday, September 24, 2024; Time: 8:00am,” the notice read.
The meetings, held bi-monthly, are critical to the central bank’s mandate of price stability, as the committee determines the monetary policy rate (MPR) of the country.
The CBN held its 296th MPC meeting between 22nd and 23rd July 2024. At the meeting, MPC members voted to raise the MPR, the benchmark interest rate, by 50 basis points from 26.25 per cent to 26.75 per cent. The apex bank has raised the MPR for four consecutive times in six months this year in its bid to tighten money supply and tackle inflationary pressure on the economy.
READ ALSO: CBN Raises Benchmark Interest Rate To 26.75% Amid Soaring Inflation
At the 293rd MPC meeting in February, which was the first to be held since the CBN governor, Dr Olayemi Cardoso, assumed office, the committee hiked the MPR by 400 basis points from 18.75 per cent to 22.75 cent. Subsequently, the benchmark interest rate was raised by 200 basis points from 22.75 per cent to 24.75 per cent in March. It was further increased to 26.25 per cent in May and to 26.75 per cent in July.
At the last MPC meeting, the committee expanded the asymmetric corridor to +500/-100 basis points, while liquidity ratio was retained at 30 per cent. Also, the committee retained the cash reserve ratio (CRR) at 45 per cent for deposit money banks and at 14 per cent for merchant banks.
As the next MPC meeting draws closer, the concerns are whether the committee will further raise the benchmark interest rate in its quest to rein in inflation, or maintain the current rate as business operators are lamenting about the difficulty in obtaining loans from banks due to high interest rate.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with seven years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Master's degree in Mass Communication.
