Popular ignorance fuels the spread of fake news. One piece of unfounded rumour making the rounds at the moment is the purported sack of the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele.
Emefiele still presides over the affairs of the nation’s apex bank; and there is no presidential body language that suggests any imminent sack.
The originator of the fake news might have mischievously misconstrued the sack by Algeria’s President, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, of the country’s central bank chief, Rostom Fadli, for Emefiele.
The news was twisted, mischief makers and bloggers pounced on the gossip; like harbingers of pain and ill will, they cast it across the social media not minding the consequences of reporting lies as truth. Indeed, too many bloggers are the votaries of cults, which, by definition are dedicated to whitewashing warts and hanging halos.
In Nigeria, a president cannot unilaterally sack a sitting CBN governor without the consenting approval of the National Assembly just as his or her appointment must be ratified by the same legislators.
Emefiele had a media parley in Abuja yesterday where he announced the new Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) of 13.0 percent from the former 11.5 percent which had been so for about two years.
Emefiele explained that the decision to increase the benchmark interest rate was taken at the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting held on Monday and yesterday.
While addressing financial reporters Emefiele said members of the committee were unanimous with the decision to hike the rates as it was the best thing to do after holding them for about two years.
According to the central bank chief, one of the reasons for raising the rate is to control liquidity ahead of the 2023 general elections as politicians would be expected to flood the system with cash in a bid to woo voters.
However, the other parameters were left unchanged by members at the gathering as the Asymmetric corridor remained around the MPR at +100/-700bps, the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) at 27.5 per cent and the Liquidity Ratio (LR) at 30.0 per cent.
So mischief makers beware!
