The Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has unanimously voted to increase the benchmark interest rate by 100 basis points to 17.5 per cent.
The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele announced this after the apex bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting in Abuja on Tuesday.
The development means this is the fifth time the CBN would increase the interest rate despite calls by stakeholders against the increment.
The CBN said previous increases were beginning to yield results with the slight drop in the inflation rate recorded in December 2022.
However, the CBN stressed that there was a need to keep tightening its fiscal policy.
The CBN also said its January 31, 2023 deadline for the validity of the old N200, N500 and N1,000 notes remains.
The CBN on October 26, 2022 had announced its plan to redesign the three banknotes. President Muhammadu Buhari subsequently unveiled the redesigned N200, N500 and N1,000 notes on November 23, 2022, while the apex bank fixed January 31 deadline for the validity of the old notes.
The CBN also pegged its weekly cash withdrawal limits to N500,000 for individuals and N5m for corporate firms.
