The Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria has retained the benchmark interest rate at 26.5 per cent.

The Governor of the apex bank, Olayemi Cardoso, announced the decision on Wednesday at the end of the committee’s 305th meeting held in Abuja.

According to Cardoso, the committee resolved to maintain the current Monetary Policy Rate.

“The Committee’s decision is as follows: retain the monetary policy rate at 26.5 per cent,” he said.

The decision follows the 50-basis-point rate cut announced in February 2026 and the previous hold recorded at the MPC meeting in November 2025.

The development comes amid a slight increase in Nigeria’s inflation rate.

According to the latest Consumer Price Index report released by the National Bureau of Statistics, the country’s headline inflation rose to 15.69 per cent in April 2026 from 15.38 per cent recorded in March 2026.

The increase represents a 0.31 percentage-point rise in inflation over one month.