MOST NIGERIANS DON'T KNOW WHO FIXES INTEREST RATES--CBN SURVEY

According to a quarterly survey on inflation attitude in Nigeria conducted last quarter by the Central Bank of Nigeria, most Nigerians have no idea who fixes interest rates in the country.

The survey, says the CBN, has been conducted every quarter since June 2009 by its Statistics Department and quarter 3 2018's own was conducted from September 28 to October 4 this year.

It involved 1770 households randomly selected from 207 Enumeration Areas across the country and response was 96.9%.

They were asked a set of 7 questions and given options to choose from in reply. To the question which group meets to set Nigeria's monetary policy, only 21.4% rightly said it was the Monetary Policy Committee of the CBN.

The rest, 78.6%, said it was the government (20.8%), ministry of finance (9.7%); National Assembly (4.3%), Others (2.5%) and don't know (41.3%).

In quarter 2 and 1 surveys, 27.6% and 24.7% got it right respectively and 38.3% and 41.9% had no idea in the two surveys.

Indeed, except for questions to do with inflation as indicated by price movement, the majority had no idea of what the true situation was or should be with inflation and interest rate determinants and impact.

In the quarter 3 survey, 38.3% had no idea of which group influences interest rates although 35% chose CBN; 47.9% had no idea of which to choose between interest or inflation rate and 49.7% had no which group influences the monetary policy committee of government, finance ministry, NASS and even no government agency.

But to the question of how an item sold for N1000 a year ago, now sells, only 4.5% had no idea. Majority (56.5%) said it now sold above N1030, 13.5% opted for between N1010 and 1030 while 8.7% saw no change.

On expectations on the likely price rise for N1000 item in the next 12 months, again only 9.6% said they had no idea. A good chunk (40.8%) said it would sell above N1030, 12.5% expect it to range below N1030 while 8.5% opted for staying the same at N1000.

Even on what will happen to the economy should prices rise faster, the don't know only rose slightly to 21.6% while those who expect the economy to be weak came to 48.4%; or expect little difference were 17.7% while those who believe it will be stronger were 12.1% of respondents.

Even on rating of the CBN's handling of its mandate, the no idea or middle ground people were also dominant. To the question how satisfied are you with the CBN, 39.3% said they had no idea and 10.3% opted for neither satisfied nor dissatisfied while 20.3% said they were fairly satisfied and 8.2% were very satisfied.

Much as the CBN has not given more information on the distribution of the randomly chosen households and indeed, why households and who answered the questions posed in households, what comes across more is that for majority of Nigerians the survey focus seems above their heads.

Decoded: More needs to be done to get most Nigerians appreciate factors that affect and the true impact of inflation and interest rates in Nigeria.



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