How The Central Bank Of Nigeria Controls The Activities Of Commercial Banks

The Central Bank of any country controls the financial activities of commercial banks in the following ways: 1.Open Market Operation: This involves the buying and selling of securities from and to commercial banks in order to increase and reduce the volume of money in circulation. If the central bank feels that the money in circulation is too small and wants to increase it, it will buy securities from commercial banks. By buying securities, it will increase the volume of money in the possession of the commercial banks and increase their ability to give more loans to members of the public,which will help to add more money in circulation. On the other hand, if the central bank feels that the amount of money in circulation is too much and wants to curtail it, it will sell securities to commercial banks. This will extract more money from commercial banks and at the same time reduce their lending powers and thereby decreasing the amount of money in circulation in the country. 2.Bank Rate: This which is also called discount rate, is the rate of interest the central bank charges commercial banks and other financial institutions for discounting their bills. If the central bank feels like curtailing the lending powers of commercial banks and other financial institutions, it will raise its discount rate, which will force other rates to rise. If the rate of interest charged by commercial banks and other financial institutions is high because that of the central bank rate is high, it will make borrowing very exorbitant and will scare people away and the rate of lending will reduce.On the other hand, if the central bank lowers its discount rate, the lending rate of commercial banks and other financial institutions will also reduce. This will make borrowing cheaper and people will be attracted to borrow.