Saturday, July 17, 2020
CBN Approves Seizure of Debtors’ Funds in Other Banks
The Central Bank of Nigeria has given banks approval to seize the funds of chronic debtors lodged in other banks.
A circular issued by the central bank on July 13 gives August 1 as the take-off date for the new policy aimed at reducing the large number of non-performing loans in the banking system.
Known as the Global Standing Instructions, the policy will be implemented through the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System and will use bank verification numbers to identify linked accounts.
Nigeria’s June Inflation Rate at 12.56% Rising for 10th Month
Nigeria’s inflation rate increased to 12.56 percent in June compared with the same period a year earlier, maintaining an upward trend for the 10th consecutive months as the exchange rate and food prices continued to exert pressure on the consumer-price index.
Consumer prices rose from 12.4 percent in May, with the food index up 15.2 percent, the biggest jump since March 2018. Inflation has persisted above the central bank’s target band of 6 percent to 9 percent since 2013.
Value of Transaction on FMDQ Exchange Jump 40% in June
The value of transactions on the FMDQ Securities Exchange reached 16.5 trillion naira in June amid a surge of fixed income and foreign-currency trading.
The amount represented a month-on-month increase of 40 percent from the 11.8 trillion naira recorded in June, according to FMDQ’s monthly report.
Bills sold through open market dealings and other money-market transactions were dominan in the fixed-income category, amounting to 55 percent of volume. Foreign-currency trading amounted to 3.3 trillion naira (8.6 billion dollars), a 13.3 percent increase from the previous month, most of it due to foreign-exchange derivatives trading.
On the average, 386.39 naira exchanged for a dollar in June compared with 386.17 in May, a 0.6 percent decline.
Central Bank to Announce Interest-Rate Decision on July 21
The Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria will start its bi-monthly deliberations on interest rates on July 20, with Governor Godwin Emefiele delivering the decision the next day.
At the last meeting in May the committee cut the benchmark interest rate to 12.5 percent from the previous 13.5 percent.