The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has disbursed a total of N2.10 trillion to 426 projects under its Real Sector Support Facility. This was revealed on Monday in Abuja by the CBN’s Director of Corporate Communications, Mr Osita Nwanisobi, during the current Abuja International Trade Fair.
“For the records, under the Real Sector Facility, the Bank released the sum of N66.99 billion to 12 additional projects in manufacturing and agriculture, “ he said.
“Cumulative disbursements under the Real Sector Support Facility (RSSF) currently stood at N2.10 trillion disbursed to 426 projects across the country.”
He stated that the apex bank has contributed N39.26 million to enterprise development under the Tertiary Institutions Entrepreneurship Scheme, increasing the total payment under the intervention to N332.43 million.
Nwanisobi stated that N20.17 billion was disbursed to 14 healthcare, manufacturing, and service projects, increasing the total disbursement under the 100 for 100 Policy on Production and Productivity (PPP) to N93.39 billion to 62 projects.
He noted that, as part of efforts to create an export market, particularly for non-oil commodities, driven by SMEs, the CBN, in collaboration with the Bankers’ Committee, launched the RT200 FX Programme in February 2022, with the goal of increasing earnings from stable and sustainable inflows of foreign exchange.
“Our records show that the initiative has started yielding the expected results as importers and exporters have been taking advantage of the payment of incentives of N65 for every US$1 repatriated and sold at the I& E Window to authorized dealer banks for other third parties use and N35 for every US$1 repatriated by the exporter for own use on eligible transactions,” he disclosed.
Nigeria is currently hard hit by a foreign exchange crunch, which is hurting manufacturers’ access to inputs. The dollar exchanges for N730-N740 at the parallel market and N425-N435 at the official window. Total exports in 2021 were $45bn but only $10bn was non-crude, according to the National Bureau of Statistics’ Foreign Trade Statistics.
Nwanisobi said it was important to take the issue of export-readiness of businesses seriously, noting that the bank had always encouraged businesses to embrace its concept of Produce, Add Value and Export (PAVE).
“The PAVE concept aims to make Nigerians consume what they produce, add value to such products and export the surpluses,” he said.
He said the initiative was similar to the export-led industrialisation policy of South-East Asia, which changed the economic fortunes of countries such as South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore.
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