According to Ynaija, he made the remark while speaking in Abuja at a roundtable organised by Women in Business.
El-Rufai said the bank’s 14 per cent monetary policy rate has led to massive job losses in the country, and if it continues with this way, only unscrupulous elements could successfully operate under the current fiscal policy atmosphere.
“We have a Central Bank that has an MPR at —what?— 14 per cent and banks lending at 20 percent.
Only traders and drug dealers can make money at this interest rate.“I have said it before and I will repeat it again, unless the Central Bank and the banking system make a conscious decision to bring interest rate down, one day we would legislate it,” El-Rufai said.
El-Rufai dismissed CBN’s perennial reasons for high interest rate, and used the “B” word to express his disgust.
“The rate of inflation in the UK is not 2 per cent or 1 per cent. It is 7-8 per cent.
But lending rate is at what one percent. I think they cut the interest ratelast week.“All these theories that the rate of interest must be above the rate of inflation is economic [expletive],” El-Rufai said.
“We must decide that businesses should be able to borrow at the rate interest that makes sense and politically lower rates to that level.”
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