FG Plans N200bn Intervention Funds For Oil Palm, Others

The Federal Government plans to give N200bn intervention funds to boost the production of oil palm, cocoa, sesame seed, shea and cashew, through the Central Bank of Nigeria.

This was disclosed during a press conference, after the Bankers Committee meeting in Lagos on Thursday.

The bankers said the initiative was part of efforts to boost exports, and that the beneficiaries would be given the loans at a single- digit interest rate over a 10- year period.

One of the bankers who spoke, the Group Managing Director, UBA Plc, Kennedy Uzoka said, “Oil palm as you all know, we used to be number one, we decided to focus on that. Cocoa is another area, sesame seed is another area, shea and cashew. So we shall be going ahead with these, applying the funds we have identified in the Central Bank.

“With the meeting we had today, we are going to be lending at single digit, of a maximum of 10 years on each of these, depending on the particular product and the state of the company and we are going to deploy almost N200bn to support this, that will change the narrative.”

He explained that the CBN looked at the different funds available to it and how the funds could be used to address the current challenges, increase foreign exchange, create employment and boost economic activities.

According to him, the sector has identified seven broad areas it will look into.

“In terms of policies that drive exports, a lot of them need to be changed. We looked at all these things and broke them into immediate, mid-term and long- term to address them,” he said.