Yemi Cardoso, the governor of Nigeria’s apex bank has been providing a systematic and methodical measures to contain the excessive liquidity in the economy that is directed towards the holding of the US dollars and driving up the volatility of the Naira. On Wednesday, the Bank issued Treasury Bills more than a trillion Naira, including N600 billion for 364 days. It is consistent with recent approaches and complements the over one trillion and N320 billion raised in December 2023 and January 2024, respectively. It comes amidst market expectations that the monetary policy committee (MPC) will raise the monetary policy rate from the current 18.75% when it meets for the first time under the current leadership February 25 – 26. The expectation is a raise of between 100 – 300 basis points. The Naira has suffered terrible weakness in the last 8 months following the announcement that the previous government borrowed N22 trillion illegally from the Central Bank and JP Morgan released a report that suggested that Nigeria’s foreign reserves was much lower than initially thought.
