The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has scheduled its 297th Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting for September 23 and 24, 2024, at its headquarters in Abuja.

This follows the last meeting held in July under the leadership of the central bank’s governor, Olayemi Cardoso, where the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) was raised by 50 basis points to 26.75 per cent.

The increase aimed to combat inflation and create a favourable environment for foreign investments.

The upcoming meeting comes after a year of aggressive rate hikes totalling 800 basis points to address rising inflation, which eased slightly to 32.15 per cent in August due to improved food supply.

The CBN has reaffirmed its commitment to orthodox monetary policies aimed at further reducing inflation.

Former US president Donald Trump, along with his sons and entrepreneurs, late Monday, launched a cryptocurrency platform but provided few details.

Little was revealed about the Trump family crypto project during a two-hour online presentation other than an offer to let people buy digital “tokens,” giving them a vote in platform decisions.

The event went ahead as planned despite an apparent assassination attempt against Trump on Sunday at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida.

World Liberty Financial intends to offer services based on so-called decentralised finance, a mechanism that eliminates the need for an intermediary such as a bank to carry out transactions with a third party, the politics-laced discussion indicated.

Decentralised finance, or DeFi, is based on so-called blockchain technology, which keeps a theoretically open but tamper-proof record of transactions.

World Liberty Financial will enable users to lend or borrow cryptocurrencies to or from one another, a service already offered by many platforms, one of the best-known of which is Aave.

The former president’s son, Donald Trump Jr. touted this as “the start of a financial revolution,” during a session streamed on X, formerly Twitter.

Zachary Folkman and Chase Herro, the linchpins of the project and established cryptocurrency entrepreneurs, said the platform would primarily use “stablecoins,” which are backed by a traditional currency, most often the dollar.

As a result, they are free from the sometimes brutal fluctuations experienced by digital currencies untethered to real-world money.

World Liberty Financial wants to attract the masses to cryptocurrencies, creating a platform easily accessible to people, Folkman said.

Project leaders said they would sell tokens that give owners the right to take part in the governance of the platform, with 63 per cent of them offered to the public, 20 per cent going to the founding team and the rest set aside as rewards for users.

No timetable for the project was disclosed.

During his presidency, Trump referred to cryptocurrencies as a scam but has since radically changed his position, presenting himself as a “pro-bitcoin president” if elected in November.

In so doing, he is standing in opposition to the Biden administration, which is seen as a proponent of regulating the sector.

Vice President Kashim Shettima said Nigeria has embraced the Halal economy, and is hoping to leverage the opportunities to add the sum of $1.5bn to the country’s GDP by 2027.

Shettima revealed this as he attended the Nigeria Halal Economy Stakeholders engagement program in Abuja on Wednesday.

The program with the theme ‘Building A Vibrant Halal Economy: Unlocking Nigeria’s Potential’ seeks to stimulate Nigeria’s economy by enhancing more investments in the Halal market.

Halal is an Arabic word for lawful, permit or permissible.

There are currently over one hundred Halal-certified products in Nigeria.

According to available records, the global Halal economy has hit $7tn and is projected to grow to $7.7 by 2025.

Shettima further said the federal government will explore the opportunities that the halal market offers.

According to him, the Halal economy holds vast potential that aligns with the economic agenda of President Bola Tinubu.

He noted that Nigeria will target high level markets by developing a comprehensive Halal strategy.

He, however, noted that Halal has no relationship with any religious agenda.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has restructured the board of directors of Keystone Bank, appointing Lady Ada Chukwudozie as the new board chairman alongside five non-executive directors.

This move, announced on Wednesday, is aimed at ensuring sustained growth for the financial institution.

The newly appointed non-executive directors include Abdul-Rahman Esene, Mrs. Fola Akande, Akintola Ayodeji Olusoji, Obijiaku Samuel, and Senator Farouk Bello. Additionally, Ladi Oluwole and Abubakar Usman Bello were named executive directors.

Lady Chukwudozie brings nearly 30 years of experience in business strategy and management, while other appointees have extensive expertise in banking, legal, risk management, and finance.

Mrs Akande boasts over 25 years of experience in legal, compliance, and risk management, having worked with global brands like Cadbury, Stanbic Chartered Bank, and Shell.

Olusoji has a distinguished 30-year career in accounting, finance, and business development, having served at institutions such as Sterling Bank, Access Bank, and Intercontinental Bank.

Samuel, with more than 35 years of experience in banking and treasury operations, has left a significant mark on Nigeria’s financial sector, previously working with Zenith Bank and Fidelity Bank.

Senator Bello, a seasoned banker with over 20 years of experience, has led initiatives across both the public and private sectors, including the National Assembly and Guaranty Trust Bank.

Meanwhile, the two new executive directors bring their vast expertise to the table. Oluwole, the new Executive Director of Risk Management, comes with over two decades of experience in credit and enterprise risk management, including previous roles at Bank of America. Bello, Executive Director for the Northern Directorate, has extensive experience managing corporate, retail, and public sector clients.

Keystone Bank’s Managing Director, Hassan Imam, expressed confidence in the new board members, highlighting their potential to drive the bank’s growth and strengthen corporate governance.

“We are pleased to welcome the new chairman, non-executive directors, and executive directors to the board of Keystone Bank.

“We are confident that their extensive experience will be invaluable as we continue to reposition the bank to seize emerging economic opportunities while maintaining strong corporate governance and providing our customers with a secure and reliable banking experience,” Imam said.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said that it will sustain its market-driven interest rate policy in the 2024/2025 fiscal years.

The bank also informed that its ways and means advances to the Federal Government to finance deficits in its budgetary operations remains a maximum of 5.0 per cent of the previous year’s actual collected revenue.

The apex bank in its Monetary, Credit, Foreign Trade and Exchange Policy Guidelines for Fiscal Years 2024-2025 document released on Tuesday, said it shall continue to influence interest rates indirectly, through the adjustment of its anchor rate, the MonetaryPolicy Rate (MPR).

“Accordingly, interest rates used by banks in the 2024/2025 fiscal years shall comply with the following guidelines, including, that banks shall continue to pay negotiated interest rates on current account deposits at the instance of the customer.”

CBN said banks “shall continue to pay negotiated interest rates on savings account deposits as provided in Guide to Charges by Banks, Other Financial and Non-Bank Financial Institutions, or any other policy, circular or guideline that may be issued by CBN from time to time.

“Where special-purpose deposits (such as deposits held as collateral or other similar deposits) are held, banks shall pay interest at a rate negotiated with the customer, subject to a minimum of 30.0 per cent of MPR per annum for naira denominated deposits.”

It also noted that the applicable interest rate on foreign currency denominated deposits held as collateral shall be negotiable.

On ways and means, the CBN said any such advances shall be liquidated as soon as possible and shall in any event be repayable at the end of the year in which it was granted.

“Consistent with the banking arrangement of Treasury Single Account (TSA), Ways and Means Advances would now be determined after recognising the sub-accounts of the various MDAs, which are now linked to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) to arrive at the FGN consolidated cash position,” the bank said.

The new guidelines also said the bank will implement an explicit inflation targeting framework to enhance the effectiveness of monetary policy during the period.

According to the guideline, “To complement the new inflation targeting environment, CBN will continue to monitor the growth in monetary aggregates to ensure that it remains consistent with the inflation objective of the Bank. In addition, short-term interest rates will be monitored to avoid volatility with the goal of anchoring expectations in the financial markets.”

It said the 2024/2025 Guidelines coincide with the unification of the naira exchange rate windows to align the exchange rate with market realities, curtail unnecessary demand pressure and activities of speculators.

Two months ago, the Senate and the House of Representatives passed a bill increasing the percentage of Ways and Means loans the CBN can advance to the federal government from 5 per cent to 10 per cent.

That bill was criticised by economic experts who argued that if the increase was allowed, it could create excess liquidity.

Nigeria’s inflation rate has decelerated for two consecutive months, from 34.19% in June to 33.40% in July, and now 32.15% in August, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Monday.

According to the Consumer Price Index report released by the Bureau, the headline inflation rate eased to 32.15% in August 2024, while food inflation stood at 37.52% in the same month.

“Looking at the movement, the August 2024 headline inflation rate showed a decrease of 1.25% points when compared to the July 2024 headline inflation rate,” the NBS stated.

“However, on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 6.35% points higher compared to the rate recorded in August 2023 (25.80%).

“On a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in August 2024 was 2.22%, which was 0.06% lower than the rate recorded in August 2024 (2.28%). This means that in August 2024, the rate of increase in the average price level is lower than the rate of increase in the average price level in July 2024.”

The NBS said food inflation rate in August 2024 was 37.52% on a year-on-year basis, which was 8.18% points higher compared to the rate recorded in August 2023 (29.34%).

It said the rise in food inflation on a year-on-year basis was caused by increases in prices of the following items, bread, maize, grains, guinea corn, bread, cereals yam, Irish potatoes, water yam, cassava tuber, palm oil, vegetable oil, among others.

On a month-on-month basis, the food inflation rate in August 2024 was 2.37% which showed a 0.10% decrease compared to the rate recorded in July 2024 (2.47%).

The NBS said the fall could be attributed to the decline in the rate of increase in the average prices of Tobacco, Tea, Coco, Coffee, Groundnut Oil, Milk, Yam, Irish Potatoes, Water Yam, Cassava Tuber, Palm Oil, Vegetable etc.

In August 2024, food inflation on a Year-on-Year basis was highest in Sokoto (46.98%), Gombe (43.25%), and Yobe (43.21%) while Benue (32.33%), Rivers (33.01%) and Bayelsa (33.36%), recorded the slowest rise in Food inflation on Year-on-Year basis.

On a Month -on-Month basis, however, August 2024 Food inflation was highest in Adamawa (5.46%), Kebbi (4.48%), and Borno (3.88%), while Ogun (0.08%), Akwa-Ibom (0.45%) and Sokoto (1.00%) recorded the slowest rise in Food inflation on Month-on-Month basis.