Photo caption: Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Olayemi Cardoso. Photo credit: CBN
The Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria has crashed the benchmark interest rate to 23 per cent from 26.5 per cent.
The CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, announced the decision on Tuesday at the end of the committee’s 307th meeting in Abuja.
Cardoso said, “The Committee decided as follows: reset the monetary policy rate to 23 per cent.”
The move follows a hold at the two previous MPC briefings, and a 50-basis-point cut announced in February 2026.
The PUNCH observed that the MPC’s decision to cut rates occurred amid consecutive decreases in Nigeria’s inflation rates.
According to the most recent Consumer Price Index report released by the National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria’s headline inflation rate eased marginally to 15.39 per cent in August 2026 from 15.43 per cent recorded in July.
The PUNCH observed that the current inflation rate marked its third decline after three consecutive monthly increases.
More details shortly…
