The Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, on Saturday revealed that Nigeria’s interest rate will increase due to the rising inflation rate.
Emefiele disclosed
this at the International Monetary Fund, IMF, headquarters in Washington.
He said, “Truly,
Nigerians really expect that if they want to access finance, they should do so
under a low interest regime.
“But of course you
will agree with me that with the increase in inflation rate, from about 11.38
(percent) it was in February to almost about 12.8 in march, naturally what you
find is that interest rate would have to still go up sort off.
“When you have the MPR
below inflation rate, it is not a model that is acceptable.”
Emefiele assured
Nigerians that despite the expected increase in interest rate, the CBN will
continue to do all it can to ensure that the sectors of the economy that grow
the domestic industry, get needed attention.
“At the level of the
CBN, we would continue, as much as possible to see how we can continue to
increase our interventions to certain targeted areas of the economy.
“Particularly agriculture,
mining, the real sector, areas that would boost domestic production, areas that
would help to support our push away from relying on oil.
“Where we are seeing
goods that can be produced in the country, where we find investors that are
investing in domestic production rather than following up on exports, then we
would continue to give those kind of investors support,”, he said.
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