The Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria by a vote of 8 to 2 has decided to retain the interest rate at 12.5 percent as well as other economic parameters.
Governor of the apex bank, Godwin Emefiele made this known on Monday at the end of the CBN Monetary Policy Committee meeting in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
Emefiele said the decision of the MPC to retain monetary rates is to allow the reduction by 100 basis point or 1 percent on the interest rate during the last MPC meeting in May from 13.5 to 12.5 percent to permiate as economic indicators will yielding positive results. On the decision to increase the MPR, the CBN Governor said it would be counter-productive and this includes higher cost of production and unemployment.
Emefiele disclosed that a total of N49.195 billion has been disbursed to 92,000 beneficiaries under the N50 billion Covid-19 targeted credit facility for households and SMEs. While N157 billion has been disbursed from the N1 trillion economic stimulus package
The need to set up an infrastructure entity which will require N15 trillion in the next 5 year is also been proposed as it will help to solve several infrastructural challenges.
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On loan to deposit ratio the indices increased by N3.3 trillion to N18.9 trillion in June from 15.6 trillion in May 2020. Non-performing loans also reduced to 6.4 percent in June 2020 all pointers to what Emefiele said means that the banking system is still strong even in the Covid-19 pandemic.
On foreign reserve, the CBN Governor said the outlook was still good as the country had over N36 trillion and that excludes the $3.4 billion IMF facility to Nigeria.
Fiscal and monetary authorities were urged by the MPC to collaborate and continue to seek ways of improving the economy.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
