CBN Disbursements On 3.1m Projects Rise To N6.01trn
The Central Bank of Nigeria’s financial disbursements on about 3.1 million projects have risen to N6.01tn, the apex bank has said.
It was learnt that the over three million projects were financed through 29 interventions, while the bank currently has 36 active intervention programmes.
The Director, Development Finance Department, CBN, Yusuf Yila, disclosed this at the African Continental Free Trade Agreement Strategy Workshop Series II on financial services and investment mobilisation, with the theme ‘Leveraging Nigeria’s financial services sector to maximise the gains of AfCFTA’.
Yila’s position at the workshop was contained in a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday by the Secretary, National Action Committee on AfCFTA and Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Sector Matters, Francis Anatogu.
Yila, who was represented by an official of CBN, Chinedu Zephaniah, was quoted as saying, “The bank presently has 36 active intervention programmes and schemes aimed at stimulating finance to the real sector.”
Providing a breakdown of the interventions, he said, “3,076, 641 projects have been financed through 29 interventions amounting to N6.01tn disbursed and N1.34tn repaid recently.”
In her address at the workshop, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, stated that over 40 million micro, small and medium enterprises in Nigeria had the opportunity to grow financial once AfCFTA takes effect in January.
“With more than 40 million MSMEs in Nigeria we have the opportunity to leverage the AfCFTA agreement for financial growth,” she said.
Ahmed, who is the Alternate Chairman of the National Action Committee on the AfCFTA, advised Nigerian banks and other financial institutions to explore Africa’s market expansion as enabled by the AfCFTA in order to capture investments through superior customer value proposition.
Also, the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, noted that one of the most important benefits of the AfCFTA to the Nigerian financial sector would be the removal of barriers for the expansion of financial institutions and services to other climes within the continent.
On CBN’s interventions, Emefiele said, “Policy measures such as increasing the loan-to-deposit ratio to 65 per cent from 60 per cent, and reducing MPR of (Monetary Policy Rate) 12.5 per cent to 11.5 per cent have been directed at boosting credit to the productive sectors of the economy.”
The CBN boss, who was represented by the Deputy Governor, Economic Policy Directorate, Kingsley Obiora, added that the bank had introduced the investors’ and exporters foreign exchange window.
This, he said, was to support the inflow of capital and encourage exports, as well as the restriction of access to forex for the importation of goods that could be produced locally.
