The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Olayemi Cardoso has again blamed the monetary policies of his predecessor, Godwin Emefiele, for the current economic situation of the country.

Cardoso stated this at a press briefing on Tuesday at the end of the 297th meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) in Abuja.

Cardoso announced the committee’s decision to further raise the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) which measures interest rates by 50 basis points from 26.75% to 27.25% to tighten the inflation rate which stands at 32.15%.

Emefiele was CBN governor from June 4, 2014 to June 9, 2023. After Emefiele’s suspension, President Bola Tinubu appointed Cardoso as CBN chief in September 2023. Cardoso’s appointment was immediately confirmed by the Senate.

The MPC under Cardoso in the last year has raised the interest rate by 8.5%, from 18.75% in September 2023, to 27.25% 12 months later. Under Cardoso, the naira, which exchanged for around ₦700/$1 in September 2020, now sells for over ₦1,600/$1.

Asked whether the monetary policies of the apex bank including multiple interest rate hikes and the collapse of the foreign exchange windows are working considering the economic hardship Nigerians are facing, the CBN boss blamed his predecessor’s policies for the monetary situation of the country.

He said the country came into a very loose money supply situation between 2017 and 2023 and witnessed the pumping of liquidity into the system.

According to him, In 2015, the money supply was about N19tn, and in 2023, it was N54tn stressing that it was a huge increase, a very huge increase and then a substantial amount of that was through ways and means.

He added that, essentially, the printing of money resulted in a huge amount of money chasing the same amount of goods or a relative amount of goods.