Lending rates on all Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) intervention loans would increase from 5% to 9% as of September 1, 2022.

Through a recent circular note, the CBN asks Nigerian banks to raise loan rates. Intervention loans are long-term loans lent by the CBN to banks (at a reduced rate of 2%) to lend to various priority sectors of the economy (such as agriculture, energy, etc.). Following the COVID-19 epidemic, CBN asked banks to reduce the lending rate on these facilities from 9% to 5%.

The subsidized rate was initially introduced for 12 months. However, this has been extended for one year in March 2021 and March 2022. In a separate circular, the CBN also mandated banks to raise the minimum savings deposit rate from 10% to 30% of the monetary policy rate (currently 14%), from 1.4% to 4.2%. The savings rate was reduced from 30% of the TPM to 10% in September 2020 in response to downward trends in market interest rates.