COVID-19 Second Wave: CBN Kicks Against lockdown
By Ngozi Onyeakusi—-‘The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele, on Tuesday, kicked against any plan to place the country under another lockdown due to the COVID-19 second wave, saying that such a move will wreck the economy and people’s livelihood. He, however, pledged that the apex bank would extend the five per cent interest rate on loan repayment by one year to March 31, 2022. At a briefing at the end of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting in Abuja, Emefiele noted that members agreed to retain the Monetary Policy Rates (MPR) at 11.5 per cent, the asymmetric corridor, at +100/-700 basis points around the MPR, CRR at 27.5 per cent and retain the Liquidity Ratio at 30 per cent. The apex bank had in February 2020 agreed to reduce the interest rate on all its intervention funds from nine per cent to five per cent for a period of one year with effect from March 1, 2020. But when asked of the possibility of another extension considering the rampaging pestilence, he responded on the affirmative, especially as the second wave of the virus has affected the economy.
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