New Telegraph

CBN releases N9trn to sustain economy

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said its intervention in the economy in the past three years gulped N9 trillion from various development finance initiatives of the bank. The apex bank Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, who disclosed this yesterday in Abuja at the end of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, said impacts of the bank’s interventions were being felt, and advised the government to sustain its ease of doing business policy for desired results.

He also said digital payment platform, e-Naira, has recorded 905,558 application downloads with 282,600 currently active one year after its launch. The digital platform, which was formally unveiled by President Muhammadu Buhari on October 25, 2021 exceeded 1. 49 million transactions worth N3.484 billion. Emefiele confirmed these updates while fielding questions from journalists at the completion of the MPC meeting. On the e-Naira feedback, the CBN Governor said: “So far, counts of transactions have exceeded 1.49 million worth N3.484 billion.

In detail, 78,115 consumers to bank: N1 billion to customer: 90,760 transactions worth N945 million; consumer-to-consumer transactions: 35,800 worth about N480 million; consumer to merchants: 171 transactions worth over N387 million. We have seen the downloads; 13,136 wallets have so far been created via the USSD channel. We are happy that progress is being made.” Speaking to various CBN’s intervention, Emefiele said 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 stand at N2.10 trillion disbursed to 426 projects across the country. Under the 100 for 100 Policy on Production and Productivity (PPP), he said the bank 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. In the healthcare sector, N4.00 billion was disbursed to two healthcare projects under the Healthcare Sector Intervention Facility (HSIF), bringing the cumulative disbursement to N130.54 billion for 131 projects, comprising 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 Ni-gerian Export Import Bank (NEXIM).

In the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) sector, the 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 N1.00 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.

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