Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Olayemi Cardoso has launched the Nigeria Overnight Financing Rate, a new transaction-based financial benchmark developed in collaboration with the Financial Markets Dealers Association and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to replace subjective, estimation-based reference rates with a measure anchored in observable real-time interbank market activity.
Cardoso, speaking at the launch ceremony at the CBN headquarters in Abuja, described NOFR as a defining step in Nigeria’s financial market evolution, saying the global shift away from judgment-based benchmarks toward transaction-based rates was a direction Nigeria had to embrace deliberately to maintain the credibility and competitiveness of its financial system. He said the new benchmark would enhance market integrity by eliminating reliance on subjective estimates, minimize manipulation risk, and strengthen price discovery and transparency across the financial system.
He said the practical consequence of deeper and more trusted financial markets was the kind of expanded liquidity that attracted investors and supported growth, and that NOFR was designed not only to serve current market needs but to prepare Nigeria’s financial infrastructure for the increasing complexity of instruments including derivatives and term benchmark products that more sophisticated markets routinely employed.
CBN Deputy Governor Philip Ikeazor described the launch as the beginning of a new chapter requiring sustained collaboration, adaptability, and shared commitment from all market participants. He said Nigeria had chosen not merely to follow the global transition to transaction-based benchmarks but to actively shape it through deliberate and coordinated reform, and urged market participants to engage actively with the new rate and contribute to its successful adoption across the financial system.
