Nigeria’s Central Bank has been honoured as the 2026 Central Bank Of The Year at the prestigious Central Banking Awards, a recognition of its deep‑seated monetary and structural reforms that have strengthened macroeconomic stability and renewed investor confidence in the nation’s financial system.
The award citation, made public in a statement from the Central Banking Awards Committee, underscored the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) decisive shift towards orthodox monetary policy and robust governance practices which have been instrumental in stabilising the economy after years of policy turbulence.
According to the committee, Nigeria grappled with severe economic distortion prior to the reforms, characterised by surging inflation, depleted foreign exchange reserves, and a wide divide between official and parallel market exchange rates. In 2023, inflation hit 22.4 per cent and foreign exchange liquidity deteriorated sharply, with an estimated $7bn backlog in unmet obligations and more than 60 per cent spread between rate windows.
The committee pointed out that economic stagnation and inconsistent policy thrusts had seen Nigeria cede its position as Africa’s largest economy in 2014 to South Africa, Egypt and Algeria. Monetary financing and expansive subsidy interventions were said to have placed policy on an unsustainable footing.
The turnaround began with the October 2023 appointment of Olayemi Cardoso as CBN Governor, whose leadership ushered in an ambitious reform agenda focused on ending quasi‑fiscal operations, tightening monetary conditions, clearing foreign exchange backlogs and reinforcing institutional independence.
A cornerstone of the reforms was the unification of multiple exchange rate windows into a single market‑driven system underpinned by a willing buyer, willing seller model and supported by an electronic FX platform designed to enhance price discovery and transparency.
Governor Cardoso emphasised the impact of these measures, noting that the naira now trades in a narrow, stable range and that the previously wide gap between official and parallel market rates has shrunk to below 2 per cent.
Improvements in foreign exchange liquidity have also bore fruit across key sectors, with the CBN settling outstanding FX obligations for the aviation and manufacturing industries, bolstering business confidence. These developments, coupled with increased capital inflows and higher non‑oil export earnings, helped Nigeria’s gross external reserves climb to $46.7bn by November 2025 — the highest in nearly seven years and providing more than ten months of import cover.
The International Monetary Fund’s July 2025 Article IV assessment lauded the central bank’s efforts, highlighting strengthened market confidence and greater liquidity in the FX market.
In efforts to tame inflation, the CBN pursued aggressive rate hikes, lifting the benchmark from 18.75 per cent in 2023 to 27.5 per cent by November 2024. Although inflation peaked at 34.8 per cent in December 2024 amid subsidy removal and currency liberalisation, the rate eased to 15.1 per cent by January 2026, with food inflation moderating to 8.9 per cent.
This disinflation trajectory enabled a cautious monetary policy easing, with the benchmark rate trimmed to 26.5 per cent by February 2026. Governor Cardoso reiterated the bank’s commitment to further lowering inflation, while advancing an inflation‑targeting framework supported by enhanced data analytics and communication tools.
Beyond monetary policy, the committee highlighted significant structural initiatives in the banking sector, including a recapitalisation drive launched in 2024 that raised capital thresholds for banks. Over 33 banks have since raised …
