BY EDMOND ODOK – In spite of growing complaints of soaring inflation across the country, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has again postponed its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting for the last quarter of this year.
This would be the second time within the last five months that the MPC meeting has been postponed since Dr Olayemi Cardoso took over at the helm of affairs as the apex Bank governor in September. The meeting was initially scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, November 20 and 21, 2023.
A Bloomberg report on Monday quoted a text message response by the CBN’s Director of Corporate Communications, Dr Isa Abdulmumin, as saying the “MPC is not holding” a meeting this week.
Further confirming that the MPC meeting has been shelved, media reports indicated that the development may not be unconnected with the upcoming Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) dinner, where the CBN governor is expected to present an economic roadmap for Nigeria.
The reports quoted the CBN’s Spokesman as explaining in a message thus; “The Monetary Policy Committee meeting is not holding this week. All roads lead to the 2023 CIBN annual dinner slated for Friday, 24th November.”
With this latest development, investors and financial analysts will have to wait a little longer for Cardoso to unveil his policy direction aimed at containing the surging inflation that hits the 27.33 percent mark in October 2023.
For now, there are concerns among economic experts regarding the meeting not holding given that the markets are awaiting a new MPC decision based on the current positive response in consumer prices to money market reforms.
Year-on-year, the MPC meetings have served as a compass that helps investors understand the state of the economy while guiding the public on the policy direction of the government. The last MPC meeting took place in July and since then, the nation’s monetary policy space has witnessed rapid changes occasioned by certain policy measures introduced by the CBN, especially from the beginning of October.
Importantly, the MPC provides information about the economy and the policy direction of the CBN with financial experts arguing that monetary policy communication remains vital to guide investors, and to that extent, very important for the MPC to meet and communicate its decisions to the public.
Meanwhile, the CIBN forum, christened “The Governors Day”, is expected to give the CBN Governor an opportunity to fully engage stakeholders on the economic and financial markets’ development during the year as well as the economic outlook for the year 2024.
