Small business owners have described the new Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Monetary Policy Rate, MPR, as unfortunate, and capable of further contracting businesses.They added that as businesses contract, firms will downsize, leading to loss of jobs.This is unfortunate’Reacting to the new interest rate, small business owners joined other stakeholders to fault the CBN policy. They said it was the wrong time to raise rate.
This definitely will push up further the cost of doing business and ultimately the cost of goods and services.“The manufacturing sector may contract more as fund liquidity and profitability will surely reduce.“The banks or financial institutions may witness more bad debts as many lenders may find it difficult to live up to their loan obligations. This will result in banks being averse to lending to the real sector.The economy may likely contract further, forcing the actors in the real sector to downsize their production capacities, human resources, expenditure and further exposure to loans.
We may begin to see more ailing or comatose businesses. Our competitiveness in the national, continental and global business will be further be challenged as Made-In-Nigeria products will be naturally more expensive than before.”Dangote RefineryMeanwhile, yesterday also, Cardoso expressed optimism that the Dangote Refinery will reduce pressure in the FX market as, according to him, between 10 and 15 per cent of current FX demand was for petroleum products.He added that the nation’s FX position will greatly improve once the exportation of products from the refinery becomes a reality.
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