The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, on Tuesday admitted challenges faced by bank customers following the limit on cash withdrawals and apologised for the deluge of online transaction failures in the country.
Also, Emefiele said the apex bank would sustain the current monetary tightening regime following the continued rise in headline inflation which posed significant risks to the economy.
The CBN governor said this just as the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the central bank, resolved to raise the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) otherwise known as interest rate by 50 basis points to 18 per cent from 17.5 per cent.
Additionally, Emefiele said the continued upward risk to price development around expectation for the removal of fuel subsidy as well as rising prices of other energy sources, continued exchange rate pressure and uncertain climatic conditions further justified the need to purse a moderate contractionary monetary policy.
“I must apologise. Yes, online channels fail. But no doubt it is as a result of the deluge of online transactions that hit the banking industry. But it is being resolved.
“On a daily basis, our Payment System Management Department monitor the online payment platforms so as to make sure that when there is a downtime, they are quickly resolved so that transactions can go on smoothly,” the CBN governor said.
Addressing journalists at the end of the two-day meeting of the committee in Abuja, Emefiele, however, noted that the bank retained other monetary policy parameter including bank’s Cash Reserve Requirement (CRR) at a minimum of 32.5 per cent as well as the Liquidity Ratio (LR) at 30 per cent.
The MPR is the rate at which the CBN lends to commercial banks and often determines the cost of borrowing in the economy.
The CBN governor further explained that the decision to raise interest rate was taken to further rein in inflation.
James Emejo in Abuja and Nume Ekeghe in Lagos
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