Nigerians waiting for a new interest rate from the MPC will have to wait for another month. This is because the MPC meeting has been shifted.
It will hold on a later date in February.
Nigeria’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) on Wednesday postponed its upcoming meeting, originally set for late January, to February 17 and 18.
This change breaks from the usual bi-monthly schedule, providing authorities with extra time to finalise the rebased inflation figures.
The new meeting date now appears in the 2025 calendar, following statements from Central Bank Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, in November. He had initially announced the January meeting.
The delay allows Nigeria’s MPC to implement the new inflation methodology, which will take effect in January, before the meeting.
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December’s inflation rate, calculated under the old system, reached 34.80%.
Under the revised approach, the base year for inflation calculations will be updated to 2024, reflecting key structural changes, including the removal of subsidies on FX and petrol.
Additionally, the inflation basket will expand from 740 to 960 items, while the classification system will shift from 12 to 13 divisions, replacing the outdated 1999 version.
However, this move has raised concerns among economic analysts.
Co-founder of Veriv Africa, Basil Abia, criticised the rebasing framework, arguing that it could downplay inflation by using 2024 as the reference year during a period of major economic reforms.
Despite these concerns, Head of Price Statistics at the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Ayo Andrew, confirmed that the NBS would release the December Consumer Price Index (CPI) later this month.
Also, he confirmed that the NBS would publish the rebased CPI by the end of January. This will come just ahead of the MPC’s rescheduled meeting in February.
