CBN Targets N10bn Growth In Non-oil Exports
The Central Bank of Nigeria says the bank is targeting an increase in non-oil exports from N2bn to N12bn.
The Director, Corporate Communications Department, Isaac Okorafor said this during a one-day interactive session with members of the Organised Labour and stakeholders on the five-year policy thrust of the CBN. The event was held in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
He said, “The bank, as part of its five-year policy thrust, sought to pursue, among other goals, a single digit inflation rate in five years, a double digit economic growth rate, 10 million jobs, increase in non-oil exports from N2bn to N12bn, achieve 95 per cent financial inclusion, grow the National Collateral Registry and extend the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme to cover 10 commodities.”
According to him, the bank had commenced funding of the value chains of identified commodities, with positive results recorded in cassava, cocoa, fish, livestock & dairy, maize, oil palm, poultry, rice and tomatoes.
Okorafor also noted that the textile industry which used to be largest employer of labour was being revived and on its way back to the glory days when the sector employed teeming Nigerians and the production lines would be busy all year round.
He added that the bank had equally funded the Creative Industry Financing Initiative, which was established in collaboration with the Bankers’ Committee to unlock the potential of youth in the fields of film, music, and ICT.
The Vice-President of the Industrial Global Union, Isa Aremu, commended the CBN for promoting financial literacy and its efforts to create employment and engender economic prosperity for Nigerians.
Aremu, a former Vice-president of the Nigeria Labour Congress and General Secretary, Textile Workers Union said the CBN development finance target intervention in agriculture was in line with the Federal Government’s mandate to create 10 million jobs.
He said the vision of the CBN under Mr Godwin Emefiele showed that CBN had seen ahead of the challenges and the need to diversify the economy away from oil, especially in the face of the global pandemic crisis of coronavirus which was now having adverse effects on the global economy.
