INDUSTRIALISING KADUNA
CBN Releases N44bn for Anchor Borrowers’ Programme Recovers N50bn excess charges for banks’ customers lem of lower denominations, mutilated notes Set to tackle prob-
Ndubuisi Francis exchange allocation or access in the country.
According to him, “The success achieved through the policy had resulted in many Nigerians consuming what we produce and producing what we consume.
“Reports from the real sector operators also indicate that some companies had grown in geometric progression as a result of the policy.
“The bank has also continued to fund the foreign exchange window in a bid to stabilise the naira, which I am sure, you are all witnesses to the near convergence in the foreign exchange market.”
The present crude oil marked realities and its non-impressive global future, he stated, had naturally focused the bank’s to non-oil exports as viable means of attaining self-sufficiency.
“Let me make bold to say that attaining self-sufficiency in our country’s through non-oil exports is achievable and that is why the CBN has been actively rolling out various intervention schemes,” he said.
The schemes include the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund (ACGSF), N200 billion Commercial Agricultural Credit Scheme (CACS), N200 billion and the SME Restructuring & Refinancing Facility (SMERRF),
Others, he said, are SMEs Credit Guarantees Scheme (SMECGS), N300 billion Power and Airline Intervention Fund (PAIF), N220 billion Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund (MSMEDF) as well as the MSME Development Fund and Nigeria Incentive-based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL), among others.
Responding to questions from the audience, Okorafor said CBN’s introduction of the ABP in less than two years had increased local rice production by two million metric tons, bringing local production to about four million metric tons.
He promised that by next year, the bank would add another two million metric tons, and ultimately meet over six million metric tons local consumption requirement.
Okorafor disclosed that the bank would next week unveil a commercial agricultural scheme which would involve 10,000 youths nationwide.
The essence, he said, was to replace the ageing population of farmers, who are mostly in their sixties in order not to allow a vacuum when the aged can no longer farm.
On another question on what the bank was doing to cut down interest rate, Okorafor stated that a major determinant of interest rate was infrastructure, noting that this was the major reason why the CBN was involved in intervention programmes across various sectors.