The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, said that businesses in Nigeria have benefited from the “considerable steps” taken to ensure that their productive capacities are boosted.
He stated this at the 2021 Export Seminar organised by Zenith Bank on Tuesday.
Emefiele shared his belief in the ability of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AFCFTA) to create business opportunities for young Nigerian entrepreneurs.
The CBN boss said, “I believe that we should seize this opportunity to ensure that Nigeria serve as a significant hub for international and domestic manufacturing companies seeking to serve the West, Central and East African markets.
“In addition, we have a very young energetic and technological savvy population that has been leveraging technological applications to improve service delivery in the areas of finance, logistics and agriculture to consumers in Nigeria.
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“I believe the AFCFTA will provide an opportunity for these young talented Nigerians to expand their services across the African region. Developing trade portals that could support instant sales of goods manufactured in Nigeria to consumers in other parts of Africa is one aspect that can help to support the creation of jobs in Nigeria and improve foreign exchange inflows for the country.”
He highlighted the impact of the various government-led intervention programmes that have assisted businesses in growing to their capacity.
“At the CBN, we have taken considerable steps to improve the productive capacity of businesses, which would enable them to take advantage of export opportunities in Africa,” he said.
Adding, “Our intervention programmes in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors are helping to enable businesses to expand their scale of production, which is meeting growing domestic demand for goods, but also providing goods for the export market.
“In addition, we have set up a N500 billion non-oil export stimulation facility with the Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM). This initiative will also help to enable greater exports of processed agriculture commodities into other markets in Africa and in the global market.”
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