CBN Postpones MPC Meeting Over Non-confirmation Of Gov, Deputies

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has postponed its bi-monthly meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the bank indefinitely.

CBN director of corporate communication Isa AbdulMumin disclosed this in a statement he issued yesterday. The meeting for this month was initially fixed for 25 and 26 of this month. No new date has been fixed for the meeting which is likely to be extended to October.

“The monetary policy committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has deferred its 293rd meeting scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, September 25 and 26, 2023, respectively,” AbdulMumin in the statement, adding that “A new date will be communicated in due course.”

Though no reason was given by the apex bank for the sudden postponement of the meeting, LEADERSHIP gathered that the decision was based on the non-confirmation of the new CBN governor and four deputy governors who were recently appointed by President Bola Tinubu. The President appointed Olayemi Cardoso to serve as the new CBN governor alongside four other deputies to replace the existing ones.

This is the second time that the MPC has been postponed in the history of the meeting.

In January 2020, the first MPC meeting of the year was postponed from January 20-21 to January 23-24. The CBN did not provide a reason for the postponement, but the delay resulted from the general elections in Nigeria.

The MPC meeting is where monetary policy decisions, including the official interest rate benchmark also known as Monetary Policy Rate, cash reserve ratio, asymmetric corridor and other parameters are taken by the 11-man committee headed by the CBN governor.

A source in the apex bank who asked not to be named said the outgoing acting governor and his deputies can no longer take key decisions at this time based on the fact that new management has been appointed for the apex bank.

Meanwhile, the new appointees are yet to be confirmed by the Senate who are currently in recess. The Senators are expected to resume from break on the 26th of September, 2023.