The Central Bank of Nigeria CBN has cut the Monetary Policy Rate MPR from 26.5 per cent to 23 per cent.

The CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, announced the decision on Tuesday at the end of the Monetary Policy Committee’s 307th meeting in Abuja.

Cardoso said the committee decided to reset the MPR to 23 per cent and recalibrate the standing facilities corridor to plus 50 and minus 300 basis points around the MPR.

The committee also retained the Cash Reserve Requirement (CRR) for deposit money banks at 45 per cent and merchant banks at 16 per cent. The CRR on non-Treasury Single Account public sector deposits was also retained at 75 per cent.

The latest decision represents a 350-basis-point reduction from the previous 26.5 per cent rate.

The move follows a period of easing inflation. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria’s headline inflation rate fell marginally to 15.39 per cent in August from 15.43 per cent in July, marking the third consecutive monthly decline.

The CBN had reduced the MPR by 50 basis points in February 2026 before retaining it at subsequent MPC meetings.

Cardoso said the latest adjustment was aimed at strengthening monetary policy transmission and reinforcing the MPR as the principal signal of monetary policy.

He also said the recalibration should not be interpreted as a change in the underlying monetary policy stance, but rather as an operational reset to improve the effectiveness of the monetary policy framework.

The reduction brings the benchmark rate to its lowest level since February 2024.