Central Bank Raises Minimum Savings Deposit Rate to 4.2%
By Bashir Olanrewaju
The Central Bank of Nigeria increased the minimum savings deposit rate effectively to 4.2 percent from 1.5 percent, retreating from a position that had made depositors funds cheaply available to the banks.
Under the new rates regime communicated to financial institutions in a circular, the minimum deposits rate will now be 30 percent of the Monetary Policy Committee rate, currently at 14 percent, Haruna Mustafa, central bank’s director of banking supervision said in an August 15.
In September 2020, the central bank pushed the minimum savings deposit rate to 10 percent of the MPC rate, which at the time stood at 12.5 percent.
The regulator said at the time that the move was in line with its policy of “stimulating credit flow to the real sector.”