In its bid to diversify the country’s economy away from oil, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced that it would revamp the N500 billion Export Stimulation Fund for the promotion of non-oil exports in the country using the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme model.
The apex Bank has also introduced a N50 billion direct intervention funding for the Nigeria Export Import Bank (NEXIM).
The Governor of the CBN, Godwin Emefiele, who made these known when he addressed news men in Lagos on Friday, said that the measures were in line with the Federal Government’s economic plan.
Emefiele who spoke shortly after a meeting in with banks and exporters operating in the non-oil sector, emphasised that the measures were meant to advance the course of the country’s efforts at diversifying the economy and developing 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,”
Emefiele identified the agricultural sector as critical, and should be developed in the country’s effort to diversify the economy because it had historically sustained Nigeria’s economy before the advent of oil.
He said that 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.
The CBN boss said that a team comprising of NEXIM, the Development Finance Department of the CBN and the Office of the Special Adviser to the CBN Governor on Agriculture had been constituted to review the existing framework for the Stimulation Fund on how it will be disbursed, to make it all-encompassing.
He said that the current effort is 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.
According to him, the rationale for this approach is that the processing of agricultural produce before export would create jobs for Nigerians and generate revenue for the country.
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.
He added that the solid minerals sector would also benefit from the facility, adding that as an additional means of both creating jobs and increasing exports, the CBN would provide needed support to revive erstwhile exporting companies of processed agricultural produce that are now moribund.
He acknowledge that some incidences of undocumented export transactions in the system, even as he called on the exporters to desist from such adding that only documented export transactions would be funded by the intervention.
Emefiele said 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.
He said that a detailed framework for the disbursement of the funds is expected to be released soon. [myad]
