The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has raised the interest rate from 18 percent to 18.5 percent.

The apex bank governor, Godwin Emefiele, announced the decision on Wednesday after the policy-setting committee meeting at the CBN headquarters in Abuja.

The development is the third consecutive time the apex bank will be raising the monetary policy rate (MPR) which measures the interest rate.

This is coming a week after the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics revealed that the country’s inflation rate for the month of April hit 22.22% surpassing last month’s rate of 22.04%.

According to the report, in April 2023, the headline inflation rate rose to 22.22% relative to March 2023 headline inflation rate which was 22.04%. Looking at the movement, the April 2023 inflation rate showed an increase of 0.18% points when compared to March 2023 headline inflation rate.

This marks the third consecutive time the apex bank will be raising the benchmark rate this year.

In January, the CBN raised the interest rate from 16.5% to 17.5 percent to tame inflation.

The MPC raised the monetary policy rate by 100 basis points to 17.5% and kept the asymmetric corridor at +100/-700 basis points around the MPR.

Shortly after the January increase, the CBN again in March increased the benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points to 18. percent.