The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has decided to temporarily pull back a document they released called the “Monetary, Credit, Foreign Trade, and Exchange Policy Guidelines” for the years 2024-2025. They did this because there were many wrong stories about it in the media, which led to a lot of confusion.
The CBN made this announcement on Friday. They said they were worried about how some parts of the guidelines were reported incorrectly, which confused many people.
The document, known as Monetary Policy Circular No. 45, was first released on September 17, 2024. However, because of the confusion caused by media reports, they decided to take it back for now.
This document is a mix of old rules
The CBN explained that some news outlets incorrectly said the guidelines were new rules. In reality, the document is a mix of old policies and rules that were issued before December 31, 2023.
The bank highlighted that these guidelines are meant to help people understand the policies clearly and resolve any conflicts that might arise. However, because some rules in the document have been changed or replaced, it led to confusion.
The CBN said in their statement: “We noticed that some people misunderstood or misrepresented our bi-annual publication on Monetary, Credit, Foreign Trade, and Exchange Policy Guidelines, which was published on September 17, 2024. Because of this, we are pulling back the document temporarily to prevent any more confusion.”
It clearly says in the document that these are old rules issued by the bank up until December 31 of the given year.”
Rules can be changed
The CBN also said they might change these guidelines without telling people in advance. This is to deal with new things happening in the local and global economy. They will issue new circulars to inform people about these changes.
Some reports incorrectly linked parts of the guidelines, like the now-halted Cyber Security Levy or the misunderstandings about the removal of fuel subsidies affecting foreign reserves. These reports were based on outdated or wrong information. The CBN also mentioned that recent policy updates, such as changes to the naira exchange rate, have modified some of the older rules in the guidelines.
The bank clarified: “These guidelines are a mix of old rules, and they only apply if there have been no updates or changes to those rules. This is clearly stated in the document to help people understand.”
“Like previous editions, the latest document (January 2024) contains rules issued by the Bank up to December 31, 2023. Some of these rules will still be useful during 2024 – 2025, but others may no longer apply because they have been updated or changed since then.”
The CBN urged everyone, especially stakeholders and the media, to ask them directly for clarifications before publishing any reports. This will help prevent more confusion. The bank also promised to provide clear and consistent monetary policy directions to support Nigeria’s economy.