By Omodel Adlgun
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said it has expended close to N3trillion in intervention funding io three critical sectors of the economy through its various non-oil policies and exports.
According to its Govern or, Godwin Emefiele, in a Communiqué read at the end of Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting held on Tuesday September 27, 2022 in Abuja, the real sector, healthcare and SMEs got the huge CBN support during the period under review.
Giving details, in hls speech, Emefiele said:
“The economy has thus maintained continuous growth for seven consecutive quarters, following its exit from recession in 2020.
This consistent positive performance was driven largely by the sustained growth in the non-oil sector, particularly services and agricultural sub-sectors, supported by continued policy interventions, as well as credit expansion to the private sector.
Members urged the bank not to relent on the various policies put in place to support non-oil exports to shore up external reserves.
“Under the Real Sector Facility, the bank released the sum of N66.99 billion to 12 additional projects in manufacturing and agriculture. Cumulative disbursements under the Real Sector Support Facility (RSSF) currently stood at N2.10 trillion disbursed; under the 100 for 100 Policy on Production and Productivity (PPP), the bank disbursed the sum of N20.17 billion in healthcare, manufacturing, and services, bringing the cumulative disbursement under the facility to N93.39 billion; Furthermore, under the 100 for 100 Policy on Production and Productivity (PPP), the CBN disbursed the sum of N20.17 billion to 14 projects in healthcare, manufacturing, and services, bringing the cumulative disbursement under the facility to N93.39 billion to 62 projects.
Also in the healthcare sector, N4.00 billion was disbursed to two (2) healthcare projects under the Healthcare Sector Intervention Facility (HSIF), bringing the cumulative disbursement to N130.54 billion for 131 projects, comprising of 32 pharmaceuticals, 60 hospitals and 39 other services.
Under the Export Facilitation Initiative (EFI), the bank funded several commodity projects in the non-oil export segment for value-addition and production to the tune of N3.24 billion, aside the N50.00 billion disbursed through the Nigerian Export Import Bank (NEXIM);
In the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) sector; under the Tertiary Institutions Entrepreneurship Scheme (TIES), bringing the total disbursement under this intervention to N332.43.
In the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) sector, the apex bank supported entrepreneurship development with the sum of N39.26 million under the Tertiary Institutions Entrepreneurship Scheme (TIES), bringing the total disbursement under this intervention to N332.43 million. Under the Intervention Facility for the National Gas Expansion Programme (IFNGEP), the Bank disbursed 1.00 billion to support the adoption of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) as the preferred fuel for transportation and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) as the preferred cooking fuel.”