Central Bank of Nigeria Set Aside N1 Trillion to Fund Real Sector

In a bid to resurrect the real sector of the economy, the  Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has set aside over N1 trillion to promote lending to the sector with a view to stimulating economic activities in the country. Mr. Godwin Emefiele, Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, disclosed this at the 21st Seminar for Finance Correspondents and Business Editors in Ibadan, Oyo State capital, yesterday.

 Mr. Emefiele who spoke through the Deputy Governor, Corporate Services, Mr. Adebayo Adelabu, revealed the massive interventions of the apex bank in financing the real sector of the economy, adding  that the current trend in global central banking has gone beyond the core functions of monetary policy management. 

 His said, “At the CBN, our approach to real sector development is three-pronged.  Our interventions centre around agriculture, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, MSMEs and Infrastructure interventions. 

“The interventions included the N300 billion Real Sector Support Facility  RSSF; the N220 billion Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund, MSMEDF; the N213 billion Nigeria Electricity Market Stabilisation Fund; N500 billion Non-Oil Export Stimulation Facility; and the N75 billion Nigeria Incentive Based Risk Sharing for Agricultural Lending, NIRSAL.” According to him, the principle behind the various interventions were to provide operators in the real sector single-interests loans of between 6-9 per cent at longer tenors, with alternative collaterals, which were the major hindrances to Deposit Money Banks’ lending to the sectors. He said,  “The major complaints of the real sector operators were categorized into three:  double –digit interest rates; shortness of the tenors of the loans from the Deposit money Banks; and non-availability of collaterals.