Review Monetary Policy to Check High Lending Rate, House Tells CBN
The House of Representatives Wednesday told the Central Bank of Nigeria to carry out urgent review of the Monetary Policy Rates (MPR) to check high lending rate by commercial banks.
The review is also expected to bring about new interest rate policy that can help enterprise development in the country.
The call followed a motion by Hon. Fatoba Olusola to investigate lending practices by banks so as to protect borrowers from being exploited.
He noted that the current rate of lending which is 30 percent was too high and has made Nigeria as the only country with such rate either in Africa or the whole world.
Olusola pointed out that while the MPR is 14 per cent in Nigeria, it is 6.5 percent in South Africa.
He also observed that in Nigeria, lending rate is restricted to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and manufacturers and industrialists, adding that the rate has affected economic growth because of the difficulty in accessing loans.
The House apart from calling on the CBN to review the MPR also urged the National Economic Council to critically consider how to reduce the cost of doing business in Nigeria in a manner that the common man will feel the impact.
The House also mandated the Committee on Banking and Currency to interface with commercial banks to ascertain the justification for the big gap between the MPR and the lending rates.
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