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The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced today that it plans to withdraw a total of N200.322 billion from the Nigerian banking system in an effort to rein in inflation. The apex bank said it plans to mop up the funds through a special open market operation (OMO) at the rate of 16 percent per annum.

Isaac Okorafor, the CBN’s Acting Director in charge of Corporate Communication, said the bank’s decision to mop up liquidity was in reaction to the maturity of N206 billion worth of treasury bills on Thursday, June 15, 2017.

Okorafor said that the apex bank – during a meeting of the Bankers’ Committee in Lagos – decided on the rate of 16 percent per annum due to the falling rate of inflation, which he noted will continue to fall.

Earlier today, the National Bureau of Statistics reported that the country’s inflation declined for the fourth consecutive month in May to 16.25 percent compared with 17.24 percent in the previous month.

Last week, the CBN released its Treasury Bills Issue Programme for the third quarter of 2017, disclosing that the maturity dates for the various tenors will be June 15, June 22, July 6, July 20, August 3, August 17 and August 31, 2017.