Nigeria’s Money Supply Drops As CBN Reports ₦118tn Supply In September

Nigeria’s money supply fell month-on-month to about ₦118 trillion in September 2025, down from ₦119.7 trillion in August, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria.

The figure, contained in the apex bank’s Money and Credit Statistics Report for September, showed a broad decline across most components of the money supply, with the exception of currency outside banks.

The CBN attributed the fall to a reduction in banks’ credit to the economy, which contracted by five per cent in September.

The apex bank noted that the tightening was consistent with its policy stance aimed at curbing inflation, which has remained stubbornly high despite successive interest rate hikes.

Since mid-2023, the CBN has raised the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) by more than 800 basis points, a move that has tightened liquidity in the banking sector.

The data revealed that Narrow Money (M1) dropped by 0.76 per cent to ₦39.1 trillion in September from ₦39.4 trillion in August.

Quasi Money fell by 1.99 per cent to ₦78.7 trillion, compared to ₦80.3 trillion in the previous month.

Similarly, Demand Deposits slipped by 0.86 per cent to ₦34.6 trillion in September from ₦34.9 trillion in August.

In contrast, Currency Outside Banks (CoB) edged higher, rising by 0.45 per cent to ₦4.47 trillion, up from ₦4.45 trillion in August.

The CBN report showed that credit to the economy fell by 2.1 per cent to ₦96.7 trillion in September from ₦98.8 trillion in August.

The decline was largely driven by a sharp 4.4 per cent drop in banks’ credit to the private sector, which fell to ₦72.5 trillion from ₦75.9 trillion.

This was only partly offset by a 5.67 per cent increase in credit to government, which rose to ₦24.2 trillion in September, from ₦22.9 trillion in August.