CBN revamps N500bn non-oil fund

By Benjamin Umuteme

Abuja

Export Stimulation Fund for the promotion of non-oil exports in the country.
This is even as the it introduced a N50 billion direct intervention funding for the Nigeria Export Import Bank (NEXIM).
CBN Governor , Mr. Godwin Emefiele who disclosed this on Friday in Lagos explained that the intervention is was in furtherance of the country’s efforts to diversify the economy and develop sources of foreign exchange in addition to earnings from crude oil.
He said that the effort is expected to increase the volume of non-oil exports, which will subsequently increase the amount of foreign exchange inflow into the economy.
“We want to encourage exporters with the N500 billion Export Facility to increase the volume of export earnings that is routed back to the economy to help us grow the economy,”
While noting the critical role the agricultural sector in government’s diversification plan, the CBN said the new programme would encourage a policy of value addition to agricultural produce before export rather than the current situation of exporting raw unprocessed produce.
He added that the current effort was hinged on a policy of Produce, Add-Value and Export (PAVE) aimed at encouraging exporters to advance beyond merely exporting raw materials to adding value to the products through processing exportable items.
Speaking further, the Governor identified some of the agricultural produce that would be supported with the funds to include cocoa, cashew nuts, palm produce, sesame seeds and rubber adding that the solid minerals sector would also benefit from the facility.
While acknowledging that some incidences of undocumented export transactions in the system, he called on the exporters to desist from such adding that only documented export transactions would be funded by the intervention.
Mr. Emefiele further stated that before the funding is provided to the exporters, they would have to commit, through their banks and NEXIM, the volume of export earnings to be routed back to the country to support economic activities and other foreign exchange commitments.

Leave a Reply