CBN forecloses further forbearance extension for intervention loans

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, has foreclosed further extension of the regulatory forbearance on its intervention facilities instituted by the apex bank to cushion the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on companies and businesses.

He said the global economy has since opened up with lockdowns lifted while companies and businesses have witnessed improved revenues, hence the need for borrowers to start repaying their loans.

Emefiele, while addressing journalists after the two-day meeting of the CBN’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) in Abuja, said he does not envisage a likelihood of loan default resulting from the forbearance programme.

This is just as the MPC resolved to leave all monetary policy parameters unchanged, retaining the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) otherwise known as the interest rate at 11.5 percent with the asymmetric corridor of +100/-700 basis points around the MPR. The MPR is the rate at which the CBN lends to commercial banks and often determines the cost of borrowing in the economy.