By Omodele Adigun

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As part of efforts to ease foreign exchange(forex) pressure on strategic sectors of the economy, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has so far granted $1.53 billion to 9,134 companies through the inter-bank market.
Data from the apex bank on foreign exchange allocation and utilization for September and October show that manufacturing industries got the lion share of about $751.45 million. In September alone, the real sector got over $660 million from 1,342  companies, to source raw materials and spare parts for their industries. This rose to about 7,792 requests for $867 million in October with the raw materials sector receiving the lion share of about $355.75million or 40.99 per cent of the total value of forex utilization for the month put at $867.8 million.
The data also showed that other end users like the petroleum industry got access to about $150.82 million .Companies and other interests in the agricultural sector got access to about $13,72 million for the period, while entities in the aviation sector received about $10.31million for the same period. Finished goods and others got allotments of about $43.84 million and $10.78 million respectively.
Invisibles, comprising school fees, students’ upkeep and medicals, among others, received $191.34 million or 22.05 per cent of the total amount.
Confirming the figures, the Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department of CBN, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, said the release of the figures underscored the transparency of the apex bank in foreign exchange management.
According to him, CBN remained committed to its pledge to ease the foreign exchange pressure on manufacturing and agricultural sectors through forward sales under the new flexible foreign exchange regime.
While releasing the names of the 1,342 companies that accessed fund in September, CBN stated that 23 banks and International Money Transfer Organisations (IMTOs) disbursed over $660.17million during the month to import raw materials, plants and machinery.
Recall that CBN recently said that manufacturing industries were given access to over $660 million in the inter-bank market to source raw materials and spare parts.
Details indicated that the sum sourced by the manufacturers was to facilitate the procurement of raw materials for agricultural, pharmaceutical, automobile, aviation, plant and machinery, power, telecommunications, and printing, among others.