The Central Bank of Nigeria has been named "Central Bank of the Year" at the 2026 Central Banking Awards in London, an international honor recognizing the institution's sweeping monetary and structural reforms.
The question Nigerians are asking: reforms for whom?
The award, announced by Central Banking magazine, praised the CBN for helping "stabilize the country's economy after years of policy distortions." Governor Olayemi Cardoso, who took office in September 2023, has overseen the unification of multiple exchange rates, the elimination of controversial "ways and means" financing that had ballooned to ₦30 trillion, and aggressive interest rate hikes to combat inflation.
To international observers and institutional investors, these are textbook reforms. To ordinary Nigerians, they are a catalog of pain.
The naira has lost more than 70% of its value since the exchange rate unification in June 2023. Inflation hit 34.6% in November 2025, the highest in nearly three decades. The benchmark interest rate stands at 27.5%, making credit virtually inaccessible to small businesses. Food prices have more than doubled.
"They're giving us awards while we can't afford bread," said Chidi Okonkwo, a small business owner in Lagos, speaking to The Nation. "What exactly are we celebrating?"
The disconnect is not new. International financial institutions often reward governments for implementing "tough" reforms—subsidy removal, currency flotation, fiscal consolidation—that align with orthodox economic theory. Whether those reforms actually improve the lives of ordinary citizens is a separate question, one that rarely factors into award calculations.
The CBN's defenders argue that the pain is necessary and temporary. The previous system—multiple exchange rates, central bank financing of government deficits, artificially suppressed fuel prices—was unsustainable and benefited only a corrupt elite. The new dispensation, however brutal, creates the foundation for long-term stability.
