- …CBN cuts interest rate first time since 2020 …slashes MPR to 27%, CRR to 45%
- Decision marks significant shift for growth –OPS
The Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Olayemi Cardoso, has said 14 banks have so far met the new capital thresholds set by the apex bank.
He disclosed this yesterday in Abuja while briefing journalists at the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting where the Committee slashed the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) by 50 basis points, from 27.5 per cent to 27 per cent.
Cardoso, who announced the decision as the outcome of the MPC meeting in Abuja, affirmed the bank’s goal of attaining a single-digit inflation target as the nation gets into the election period in a few years. He pledged to collaborate with the fiscal policy arm to realise the objective.
Besides reducing the lending rate, the MPC unanimously adjusted the Standing Facilities corridor around the MPR to a +250/-250 basis point basis, adjusted the CRR for commercial banks to 45 per cent while retaining that of merchant banks at 16 per cent.
It also introduced a 75 per cent CRR on non-Treasury Single Account (TSA) public sector deposits for enhanced liquidity management while it retained the Liquidity Ratio unchanged at 30.00 percent. The MPC set the number of banks that met the recapitalization threshold at 14.
Addressing journalists, he said: “The committee’s decision to lower the monetary policy rate was predicated on the sustained disinflation recorded in the past five months, projections of declining inflation for the rest of 2025, and the need to support economic recovery efforts.
“The MPC also adjusted the Standing Facilities corridor to improve the efficiency of the interbank market and strengthen monetary policy transmission.
The Committee further introduced a 75 percent CRR on non-TSA (Treasury Single Account) public sector deposits for enhanced liquidity management.”
Cardoso also revealed that “gross external reserves remained robust at $43.05 billion on September 11, 2025, compared with $40.51 billion at the end of July 2025, with an import cover of 8.28 months.
Similarly, the Q2 2025 current account balance recorded a significant surplus of $5.28 billion compared with $2.85 billion in Q1 2025.” “It has been on an upward trajectory.
And honestly, as far as I can see, the measures that we’ve used to get to where we’ve gotten to and to be able to talk about a foreign reserves position that was the highest since 2019, we will continue to deploy.
“We will continue to deploy. And I see a lot more acceleration in the way the reserves will be accrued to the central bank. Take, for example, the whole issue of the non-resident NRBVN.
Take that as an example. Again, when we started that journey, it was basically $200 million per month. And then we said we wanted to double it. And we doubled it in no time.
