 The policy-setting committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria, the CBN, has raised the monetary policy rate NPR, which measures interest rate from 14% to 15.5%, the third consecutive rate hike in 2022. Addressing journalists after the committee's meeting at the CBN headquarters in Abuja, the governor of the Apex Bank, Godwin Amirphale, said that 10 members of the committee voted for the rate hike. The committee also raised the cash reserve ratio, that's the CRR, to 32.5% from 27.5%. The CRR is the share of a bank's total customer deposit that must be kept with the central bank in the form of liquid cash. The MPC noted the moderate downturn in the equities market attributing it to a continued outflow of portfolio capital as investors reassigned their portfolios to more attractive US dollar-denominated fixed income securities. The committee however also called on the federal government to continue to improve the ease of doing business in Nigeria to retain the current patronage of foreign investors through sustained investor confidence in the Nigerian economy. MPC applauded the bank for its continuous stringent regulatory measures over the banking system, noting the progressive decline of the non-performing loans NPR ratio of the banking system despite the heightened macroeconomic uncertainties. MPC was concerned that within a four-month period, inflation had accelerated aggressively by 280 business points from 17.7% in May of 2022 to 20.5% in August 2022. The committee was consequently of the view that given the primacy of its price and monetary stability mandate, it is expedient that the focus must be to reining inflation at this time. The committee was therefore of the view that a hold or losing option was not in consideration at this meeting at all. This is also because a loosening would further widen the negative rate interest with gap and worsen the financial market conditions as savings mobilization investment inflows would decline further. It was also of the view that with the aggressive policy normalization in advanced economies, losing the stance of policy would result in a sharp depreciation of exchange rate leading to further high capital arc flows.