The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Olayemi Cardoso, has reaffirmed the Bank’s commitment to orthodox monetary policy aimed at achieving single-digit inflation in the medium term.
The CBN governor spoke in a conversation with Hélène Rey, Lord Bagri Professor of Economics at the London Business School, on Friday, October 10, 2025.
Cardoso highlighted key reforms and priorities under his leadership, from foreign exchange market transparency and bank recapitalisation to the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digitisation in monetary operations, all while ensuring stability, inclusion, and trust.
He further stressed the importance of stronger buffers for Nigerian banks and effective coordination between monetary and fiscal authorities to sustain economic stability.
“We are headed in the right direction. The stage is set for an accelerated growth trajectory in Nigeria,” Olayemi Cardoso said.
He said the guiding philosophy of the Central Bank’s approach is sequencing, ensuring that stabilization precedes expansion.
“You cannot have inclusive growth without first restoring confidence in the fundamentals,” he said, adding “Stability is not the absence of change; it is the environment that allows productive change to occur.”
The governor noted that when the current reforms began, Nigeria’s economy was struggling under a combination of exchange-rate distortions, structural bottlenecks, and eroded investor trust. The priority, he said, was to re-establish macro credibility by applying disciplined, data-driven monetary policy tools.
“The economy we met was one where confidence had eroded, in markets, in prices, and even in data,” Cardoso told the audience.
“The decision to return to orthodox policy was not ideological; it was practical. It was the only way to rebuild credibility,” he said
