By Omodele Adigun
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has granted some companies’ requests for foreign exchange (forex) valued at over N1trillion through the inter-bank window.
A statement from the apex bank at the weekend said this was in line with its determination to ensure seamless flow of activities in critical sectors of the Nigeria economy to enable respective industries procure industrial raw materials and machine spare-parts.,
Figures published by CBN for December transactions show that the industrial raw material group got the highest share of N483.08 million, accounting for 48.1 per cent of the total forex allocation for the month.The petroleum and the aviation sectors received about N372.12 and N123.67 million or 37.1 per cent and 12.2 per cent respectively, while agriculture received about N24.52 million or 2.1 per cent.
Commenting on the development, the Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, reiterated the commitment and resolve of the bank to continue to ease the foreign exchange pressure of these critical sectors through forward sales under the new flexible exchange regime.
Recall that the CBN in the month of September and October 2016, supported these critical sectors with $660million and $867million equivalent of forex to source industrial raw materials and spare-parts through the interbank forex market.
For the two months, CBN has so far granted $1.53 billion to 9,134 companies through the inter-bank market.
The data from the bank on forex allocation and utilisation 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 show that other end users like the petroleum industries got access to about $150.82 million .Companies and other interests in the agricultural sector got 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 figure Okorafor, said the release of the transaction details 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.
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.