By Abiola Olawale
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Olayemi Cardoso, has announced that strategic policy interventions implemented by the apex bank curtailed the country’s inflation rate, preventing it from skyrocketing to an alarming 42.81% by December 2024.
Cardoso, who made this disclosure in Abuja on Thursday at the 2025 Monetary Policy Forum, revealed that the inflation rate of Nigeria could have been worse if not for the initiatives of the CBN.
He mentioned that the CBN implemented several orthodox monetary policies to tame inflation in 2024.
According to him, the decision of the apex bank to raise the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR by 875 basis points to 27.5% across six Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meetings in 2024 helped tame the inflation rate.
He also pointed out that the CRR for Other Depository Corporations was adjusted upward by 1,750 basis points to 50.00%. He explained that this move was to further control liquidity in the banking system, helping to manage inflationary pressures by reducing the amount of money banks could lend.
He asserted: “Counterfactual estimates suggest that without these decisive policy interventions, inflation could have reached 42.81 per cent by December 2024.
“Throughout 2024, the Bank implemented several bold policy measures across six MPC meetings, including raising the Monetary Policy Rate by a cumulative 875 basis points to 27.50 per cent, increasing the Cash Reserve Ratio of Other Depository Corporations by 1,750 basis points to 50.00 per cent, and adjusting the asymmetric corridor around the MPR.”
Cardoso also mentioned that other major FX-related interventions included clearing a $7bn FX backlog, which restored market confidence and improved FX liquidity, lifting restrictions on 41 items previously banned from access to the official FX market since 2015, and the introducing new minimum capital requirements for banks, effective March 2026, to enhance resilience and global competitiveness in the sector.
The inflation rate in Nigeria has been subject to significant fluctuations over the last few years. According to recent data from the National Bureau of Statistics(NBS), the inflation rate for December 2024 was reported at 34.60%, which shows an increase from previous months.
