CBN Postpones MPC Meeting as Naira Flirts with N1000 to Dollar
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has postponed its bi monthly Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting earlier scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, September 25 and 26 next week.
The CBN had in a statement on Thursday by its spokesman, Isa AbdulMumin, said that the 293rd meeting will not be held next week as scheduled.
The CBN spokesman who didn’t give any reason for the postponement noted that a new date will be made known in due course.
Economic Confidential recalls that this is the second time the MPC meeting has been postponed since the Committee was established. The first time was in January 2020 when the first MPC meeting of the year was postponed from January 20-21 to January 23-24.
The news of the postponement is coming on a day the Naira has continued its free fall against the dollar.
Economic Confidential checks on the parallel market revealed that the country’s national currency is now selling at 995 naira to a dollar as at Friday afternoon.
Our earlier checks on Thursday night showed that it was selling at 985 naira to one dollar.
The MPC is the highest policy making committee of the Bank with the mandate to review economic and financial conditions in the economy; Determine appropriate stance of policy in the short to medium term; Review regularly, the CBN monetary policy framework and adopt changes when necessary; and Communicate monetary/financial policy decisions effectively to the public and ensure the credibility of the model of transmission mechanism of monetary policy.
The CBN Act 2007 states inter alia: “In order to facilitate the attainment of the objective of price stability and to support the economic policy of the Federal Government, there shall be a Committee of the Bank known as the Monetary Policy Committee (in this Act referred to as “the MPC).”
The MPC consists of the governor of the CBN, who doubles as the chairman of the committee; the four deputy governors of the Bank; the two members of the board of directors of the Bank; three members appointed by the President; and two members appointed by the CBN governor.
The MPC meeting is held for two consecutive days once every two months. On the second day, journalists are briefed on the outcome of the meeting and they have an opportunity to quiz the CBN governor on the latest interest rate, exchange rate, measures to curb inflationary pressure and so on.
Monday’s meeting would have been the first to be chaired by the new CBN Governor, Yemi Cardoso, who would have faced the press on Tuesday to answer questions about what he is doing on the free fall of the Naira among other pertinent issues troubling the economy, if the meeting was not postponed.
There is also no clarity on the 3 billion dollars the federal government said weeks ago that it secured from the Afrexim Bank in Egypt and which was meant to make dollar available in the forex market and shore up the value of the Naira.
Economic Confidential recalls that the MPC held its last meeting which was the 292nd on July 24 and 25, 2023, when members voted to marginally increase the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) from 18.5 per cent to 18.75 per cent.
