The CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, says he and his team have no involvement in the current economic meltdown of the country.

This was revealed in a statement made at Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) Meeting of the Apex bank held in Abuja, on Tuesday 27th February, 2024 by Cardoso,  the first since he assumed office in 2023.

Cardoso asserted, however, that the CBN is making the required moves to restore the nation’s financial and budgetary stability.

He added that attempts to address this are starting to show results. He stated that the present administration of the CBN took over at a time when there was a crisis of credibility.

While giving his response to the question asked as regards CBN involvement in the current economic meltdown facing the country, he said;

“I laugh at that question but it’s not a laughing matter,” Cardoso retorted. “And I think it is very important for Nigerians to understand that the Central Bank Governor — I and my team — are not responsible for the woes that we have today; we are part of the solution.

“We are determined to ensure that we work hard to get out of the mess that Nigeria is in. We assumed responsibility in a time of crisis of confidence; there was a crisis of confidence and you may all want to go to bed and wish that crisis of confidence was not there but it was, and we can’t turn back the clock.

“All we can do is do the difficult things to make a bad situation better and I do believe that the efforts that we are making are beginning to bring back confidence because to be frank, without confidence in your business, you are not going to get far.”

Recall that the CBN had earlier raised the monetary policy rate (MPR) by 400 basis points to a record 22.75%, making it highest level MPR since the last MPC Meeting in July 24th & 25th 2023.

Cardoso added, “With the nation’s inflation rate reaching 29.90%, the new MPR is an integral part of efforts to combat inflation.”