By Ajibola Olarinoye
The Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise, the CPPE is basically giving a standing ovation to Olayemi Cardoso, the Governor of the Nigeria’s Central Bank, for what they say has been a pretty wild two-year ride. They’re hyped about naira stabilizing (well, sort of), the FX market looking less like the Wild West, and inflation finally chilling out.
Muda Yusuf, the CPPE director, dropped these gems on Sunday. The think tank’s taking a victory lap, saying Cardoso’s reforms have been all about rebuilding trust, tightening up how things are run, and making the whole money system more fair and future-proof. Lofty stuff, right?
Now, here’s where it gets juicy: CPPE says the real game-changer was Cardoso kicking the old, messy FX system to the curb. No more mystery windows or random loopholes for folks to game the system—supposedly, it’s all transparent now. I mean, let’s be honest, anything that cuts down on corruption and backdoor deals in Nigeria’s FX market is a win.
They’re also talking up how price discovery is actually working, so people aren’t just guessing what the naira’s worth. Oh, and the Central Bank has been playing with interest rates and squeezing liquidity, which apparently helped smack down inflation a bit. Not that anyone’s exactly celebrating at the grocery store, but hey, progress?
But CPPE isn’t just handing out gold stars. They’re nudging the CBN to chill out on the tight money game—maybe dial back those monster interest rates and the cash reserve ratio, so banks can actually lend to real people and businesses. Basically: ease up, but don’t get sloppy.
One weird typo in the timeline though—Cardoso was picked by President Tinubu in September 2025, but the rest of the numbers are already out here like it’s the future. Time travel, anyone? Anyway, CPPE says interest rates have dropped from a brutal 26.72% down to 21.12% (which, let’s be honest, still isn’t exactly “low”). Meanwhile, because of the FX reforms, the naira has gone from N788 to a whopping N1,487.90 to the dollar. Yikes. So, yeah, “stabilization” is doing a lot of heavy lifting there.
In summary: CPPE’s got some praise for Cardoso, but even they know the job’s not done yet. Welcome to Nigerian economics—never a dull moment.
