By Nik Ogbulie
Yesterday’s Monetary Policy Committee’s (MPC) decision may have heightened optimism in various fora that the Nigerian economy has been continuously stabilising even as the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) has continued to display sustainable impact in the economy, researches indicate.
Moneyreport Economic Intelligence report indicates that the apex bank has, in the last seven months, deliberately maintained sustainable efforts targetted at the indicative indices that can impact the Nigerian economy.
The determination of the Committee to review some of the indices down and upwards, while leaving a few the way they have been in the past few months constant has been seen as strategic plans to keep the economy responsive to the vagaries that have been observed in the ensuing global trends. Among other effects, the position of the MPC has been explained by many economists as consistent with its stability drives that beget confidence to investors at a time instability influences most decisions on the globe in view of digital economy applications.
Indications are rife that the global financial community favours Olayemi Cardoso’s intentions to keep a very solid system that wins global confidence through stable enabling rates . Unlike what happened to the Nigerian economy in the last about two years, the rates regime in Nigeria remained most vulnerable and inemical to investment drives, a major reason why most of the investment projections never took off. Current inputs into the economy by the Cardosa administration indicate a rousing invitation to new interest by investors, most of whom can now rely heavily on the exploding attempts across the various sectors, indicating competitive and profitable developments in the economy.
The current MPC decisions, which can be considered as the rule for the next two months, may stand as very dependable tall that would withstand new developments into the 2026 financial period.
The new effort, which takes effect today, aligns with the global paradigm, which looks closely at the rates structure as they affect market response.
This position may not have been of surprise because the steps taken so far by the CBN in responding to global financial issues in the last one year have been positive and could be said to may likely remain in place as they favour the forex and inflationary drives. Today, while the MPC’s red-flag remains the lending rates regime, there are strong indications that GDP stability structure, the inflationary hedge plan and the favourability matrix maintained by the other monetary windows such as CRR, foreign reserve remain strong .
These positive developments remain strong revelations of the IFC’s 2025 rating of Central Banks and their Governors published on the sidelines of the IMF/World Bank Annual Meetings in Washington some three months ago. The Bretton Woods institutions had awarded Cardoso and his team a B- rating, which has never been recorded by Nigeria, making it one of the strongest six central banks in Africa. The closest they made in recent time was a C in 2023, before Cardoso’s arrival.
Watchers of the Nigerian economy are of the position that rates trend would continue to be stable up to the next quarter in reaction to the favourable background granted the economy by the last two quarters of 2025 period.
It must be noted here that the impact of the second quarter attributes of the 2024 economic outlook on the forex market and other monetary policy guidelines affecting liquidity management can be seen in the current goodwill the economy seems to be enjoying.
But the sour side of the report is the inability of the market to conclude the recapitalization projects by 2025 year-end as banks continue to scratch the surface. If this fails to hit the optimum, a new soft spot for instability in the money market may have reopened.
It is indicative that a good number of Nigerian banks are going for broke as the two months in the new year before the deadlines would be poor period for the marketing of event of such magnitude. This may be why Cardoso tries to tighten the succession noose in the banking industry.
