Cardoso Reaffirms ‘Stability First, Then Growth’ Approach At London Business School Dialogue

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Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Olayemi Cardoso, said the apex Bank volition support its steadfast committedness to monetary stableness arsenic the instauration for inclusive and sustainable growth, insisting that credible reforms indispensable beryllium sequenced to present lasting assurance successful the economy.

He made the remarks astatine London Business School’s Wheeler Institute for Business and Development during the ‘In Conversation with the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria’ lawsuit held connected Friday, October 10, 2025, supported by J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs.

The dialogue, moderated by Professor Hélène Rey, Lord Bagri Professor of Economics, brought unneurotic investors, academics, and argumentation leaders to research Nigeria’s betterment trajectory amid planetary fiscal uncertainty.

“We stayed with orthodox monetary policy, and the system is responding,” Cardoso said. “Inflation has moderated, maturation has climbed supra 4 percent, and we’re seeing aboriginal signs of macroeconomic stableness aft years of volatility.”

Opening the evening, Dr. Nkiru Balonwu, an advisor to the CBN Governor, said the London lawsuit was portion of a caller epoch of transparency astatine the Central Bank.

“Events similar this bespeak thing cardinal to the Governor’s leadership,” she said. “Transparency, unfastened dialogue, and learning betwixt policymakers, academia, and markets. Across the world, cardinal banking is evolving, and Nigeria indispensable beryllium portion of that evolution.”

“We stayed with orthodox monetary policy, and the system is responding,” Cardoso told participants. “Inflation has moderated, maturation has climbed supra 4 percent, and we’re seeing aboriginal signs of macroeconomic stableness aft years of volatility.”

Cardoso explained that the guiding doctrine of the Central Bank’s attack is sequencing, ensuring that stabilization precedes expansion. “You cannot person inclusive maturation without archetypal restoring assurance successful the fundamentals,” helium said. “Stability is not the lack of change; it is the situation that allows productive alteration to occur.”

The Governor noted that erstwhile the existent reforms began, Nigeria’s system was struggling nether a operation of exchange-rate distortions, structural bottlenecks, and eroded capitalist trust. The priority, helium said, was to re-establish macro credibility by applying disciplined, data-driven monetary argumentation tools.

“The system we met was 1 wherever assurance had eroded, successful markets, successful prices, and adjacent successful data,” Cardoso told the audience. “The determination to instrumentality to orthodox argumentation was not ideological; it was practical. It was the lone mode to rebuild credibility.”

He acknowledged that stabilisation measures had been challenging for households and businesses, but insisted they were yielding measurable results. “Reforms of this magnitude are ne'er painless,” helium said, “but without a unchangeable base, adjacent well-intentioned fiscal oregon societal policies illness nether volatility.”

The Governor cited aboriginal indicators of progress: a narrowing exchange-rate premium, improved liquidity successful the FX market, easing ostentation momentum, and the instrumentality of capitalist inflows into fixed-income instruments. “Investors are watching for consistency,” helium said. “Our absorption is to prolong stableness agelong capable for marketplace assurance to harden into semipermanent concern decisions.”

When an interaction capitalist successful the assemblage asked astir persistently precocious lending rates and constricted entree to recognition for tiny businesses, Cardoso stressed that the monetary tightening rhythm was transitional.

“Interest rates bespeak ostentation expectations,” helium said. “As we bring ostentation down and rebuild balance-sheet confidence, rates volition follow. What matters astir is that credit, erstwhile it flows, is built connected stability, not speculation.”

Cardoso besides provided deeper penetration into the slope recapitalization programme, which helium framed arsenic an “investment successful aboriginal resilience.” He said Nigerian banks indispensable beryllium equipped to concern large-scale projects, successful energy, manufacturing, infrastructure, and exertion — without compromising their equilibrium sheets.

“We privation stronger, better-capitalized banks penning bigger tickets for productive sectors,” helium said. “This is astir preparing for the standard of concern required successful a trillion-dollar economy. It’s not astir crisis; it’s astir capacity.”

Mr. Mayokun Ajibade, Special Adviser connected Financial Markets and Economic Policy, echoed the Governor’s remarks, describing stableness arsenic “the quiescent motor of confidence.”

“Fiscal and monetary coordination has improved markedly,” Ajibade said. “The reforms are ...

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