As the Central Bank ofNigeria CBN prepares to hold its 300th monetary policy committee MPC meeting this week, the House of Representatives Committee on National Planning and Economic Development has warned against the unintended consequences of high interest rates aimed at curbing inflation in the country.
Chairman of the committee, Gboyega Isiaka, who gave the warning during a meeting with the Statistician General of the federation and chief executive officer of the National Bureau of Statistics NBS, Adeyemi Adeniran, in Abuja, said that high interest rate has negatively impacted the manufacturing, agriculture, and small and medium enterprise SME sectors.
He said there appeared to be a general consensus that the current administration had implemented bold, market-oriented reforms that were beginning to yield positive outcomes.
Isiaka noted that the policy had delivered significant gains, with the economy showing signs of stabilisation and a gradual return of investor confidence.
According to him, Nigerias capital market had surged by about 100 percent in the last two years, while CBN posted its strongest external reserves level in more than three years, adding that the apex bank also reportedly recorded a profit of N38.8 billion - a significant recovery from the N1.15 trillion loss it recorded in 2023.