Nigerian overnight rate up to 60 pct on NNPC withdrawal

Nigeria's interbank overnight lending rates spiked 15 percentage points on Monday to 60 percent, from 45 percent on Friday, after the state-owned energy firm recalled a portion of its deposits with commercial lenders to its account with the central bank, traders said.
NNPC last week sold about $300 billion naira to some lenders as part of its usual month-end dollar sales and put the naira proceeds into its account with the central bank.
"Lending rates went up today because of the NNPC cash recall and payments for foreign exchange purchased at the central bank auction," one dealer said.
The cost of borrowing among banks has oscillated between a high of 70 percent and a low of 14 percent since last month, when the central bank hiked the cash reserve requirement (CRR) on private sector deposits with commercial lenders to 20 percent, from 15 percent.
It also raised interest rates by 100 basis points to 13 percent, both moves to support the ailing naira.
The bank has mopped up 868 billion naira from the banking system over the last three weeks to meet the CRR.