The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN has raised its lending rate to 16.5 percent in a bullish move to stymie rising inflation and pressure on the naira, the country’s currency.

The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN, Godwin Emefiele made this disclosure on Tuesday at the end of the Monetary Policy Committee meeting in Abuja.

The apex bank had increased the interest rate to 14 percent months ago.

According to Emefiele, the move yielded requisite results on the country’s economy.

Mr Emefiele announced that the committee also retained the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) at 32.5 percent, and voted to retain the asymmetric corridor at +100 and -700 basis points around the MPR. The liquidity ratio was retained at 30 percent.

He added that the global inflationary pressure was quite high and there was a need to moderate the increasing inflationary concerns.

He further disclosed that the MPC did not consider the need to loosen the rates due to the prevailing circumstances although he said there were indications previous decisions to hold increase rates were beginning to yield results.

Cash Reserve Ratio is the share of a bank’s total customer deposit that must be kept with the central bank in the form of liquid cash, while Bank Liquidity Ratio is the proportion of deposits and other assets they must maintain to be able to meet short-term obligations.

Earlier in the year, the CBN had raised the cash reserve requirement (CRR) to a minimum of 32.5% in a bid to mop-up liquidity.