The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has lowered the country’s benchmark interest rate to 27.00 per cent, marking the first rate adjustment in 2025.
CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, announced the decision on Tuesday, September 23, 2025, at the end of the apex bank’s 302nd Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting held in Abuja.
“The Committee decided as follows: to reduce the monetary policy rate by 50 basis points to 27 per cent,” Cardoso told journalists.
The rate cut follows three consecutive pauses, breaking the hold pattern that dominated the last three MPC meetings. It also comes after the series of six straight hikes in 2024, a tightening cycle the bank pursued to combat surging inflation.
According to Cardoso, the latest decision was informed by consistent disinflationary trends in recent months, which gave the MPC room to ease its stance slightly while still keeping rates high to anchor inflation expectations.
