The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has disclosed that currency in circulation dropped Month-on-Month (MoM) by N4.59 billion or 0.14 per cent in March 2022 to N3.24 trillion from N3.25 trillion in February 2022.
The apex bank in its Money and Credit Statistics had reported N3.29 trillion money in circulation in January 2022. Nigeria’s currency circulating in the economy has recorded significant growth since the Central Bank maintained its dovish monetary approach as a means to ensure the recovery of the nation’s economy, following the recession recorded in 2020, caused by the covid-19 pandemic.
Several intervention policies pushed currency in circulation to its highest level in history in December 2021.
However, it has recorded a decline in three consecutive months, dropping by N37.13 billion in January and N37.84 billion in February 2022. According to CBN, banks’ credit to the private sector rose MoM, by 1.07 per cent to N36.37 trillion in March from N35.18 trillion in January 2022.
The reported figure by CBN is the highest banks’ credit to the private sector as the apex bank maintained its 65 per cent Loan-to-deposit (LDR) policy that sustained banks’ lending to real sector.
