ABUJA, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)-The Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria has retained the benchmark interest rate at 26.5 per cent.
The CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, announced the decision on Wednesday at the end of the committee’s 305th meeting in Abuja.
Cardoso said, “The Committee’s decision is as follows: retain the monetary policy rate at 26.5 per cent.”
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The decision comes after the 50-basis-point rate cut introduced in February 2026 and the previous hold announced during the MPC briefing in November 2025.
The move also follows a recent rise in Nigeria’s inflation rate.
According to the latest Consumer Price Index report released by the National Bureau of Statistics, the country’s headline inflation increased slightly to 15.69 per cent in April 2026 from 15.38 per cent recorded in March 2026, marking a 0.31 percentage point rise.
More details later…