The Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise has expressed unease over the Central Bank of Nigeria’s decision to maintain the benchmark interest rate at 27.50 percent.
The Chief Executive Officer of CPPE and a respected economist, Dr. Muda Yusuf, shared his views on Tuesday in response to the outcome of the Monetary Policy Committee meeting.
At the meeting, the CBN announced it was retaining all key monetary parameters. These include the interest rate at 27.50 percent, the cash reserve ratio at 50 percent for commercial banks and 16 percent for mortgage banks, and the asymmetric corridor at +500/-100 basis points around the policy rate.
Yusuf expressed reservations about the impact of these rates on the broader economy, emphasizing that current monetary conditions are already tightening access to funding for investors.
“CPPE welcomes the decision of the monetary policy committee to pause the tightening of rates.
“The CPPE is concerned that both the cash reserve ratio and the monetary policy rate were already very high, creating difficult financing conditions for investors in the real economy. Hiking rates was really not an option.
“Holding rates in the context of lingering uncertainty in the global economy triggered by disruptive tariff regimes and geopolitical dynamics is understandable.
“However, fiscal and monetary policy coordination remains a critical imperative for macroeconomic stability,” the leader of the economic think tank group told newsmen.
The CBN’s decision comes shortly after the National Bureau of Statistics reported a decline in inflation to 23.7 percent in April, based on its latest Consumer Price Index released less than a week ago.
This marks the second consecutive time the apex bank has opted to keep interest rates unchanged, following a similar decision in February 2025.
