The first Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting under Mr. Olayemi Cardoso’s governorship is set for February 26 and 27, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Hakama Sidi-Ali, the acting director of CBN’s corporate communications department, said in a statement that the apex bank subsequently organized a two-day strategy session for MPC members in advance of the meeting.
The purpose of the meeting, according to Mrs. Sidi-Ali, was to come up with ideas and have a thorough conversation about the committee’s goals.
She stated that discussions on the strategic plan to implement the required changes in the monetary policy transmission mechanism were among the retreat’s key focal points.
All eyes will be on the central bank, whose board has not yet been constituted and whose previous MPC members’ terms ended last year, to see if the CBN Governor and his deputies are sufficient to form a quorum for the meeting that will decide on interest rates and the best course of action for the short- to medium-term.
As required by the CBN Act, the remaining seven members of the committee have not yet been nominated, with the exception of the CBN Governor and the four deputy CBN governors.
In the statement, Ali also revealed that the purpose of the strategy session was to generate ideas and have a thorough conversation about the committee’s goals.
She disclosed that discussions on the strategic plan to implement the required changes in the monetary policy transmission mechanism were among the retreat’s key focal points.
She said that previous MPC members, IMF monetary policy communication specialists, and directors of departments important to the MPC process led the sessions.
“The robustness of the upcoming MPC meetings will be greatly enhanced by the insightful knowledge obtained from these conversations,” she said
The committee’s final meeting took place in July 2023, following a 25 basis point increase in the benchmark interest rate from 18.50 percent to 18.75 percent.
MPC Meetings
Six meetings were scheduled for the year, according to the “MPC Meetings Tentative Calendar for 2024,” which was uploaded on the website of the central bank.
The CBN website’s meeting calendar listed the dates of the sessions as February, March, May, July, September, and November of 2024.
Specifically, February 26 and 27, 2024 are scheduled for the first meeting; March 25 and 26 are scheduled for the second; and May 20 and 21 are scheduled for the third.
The dates of the upcoming MPC sessions are July 22 and 23, September 23 and 24, November 25 and 26, and July 22 and 23 for the fourth meeting.
Investors became concerned earlier in November when there were hints that the CBN MPC’s 294th meeting, scheduled for November 20–21, would not go as planned.
Three days before the 293rd MPC, which was set for September 25–26, 2023, Cardoso officially took office, so that was the second time in a row that the MPC meeting was postponed and failed.
