The Central Bank of Nigeria has at its non-core responsibilities, a developmental role which involves channeling funds to sectors of the economy that requires funding. This has sort of made the CBN a government of its own making critics wonder if it is now turning out to be another PTF.
The CBN has announced that it has spent a total of N1.4 trillion funding the real sector. It spent this amount under its development finance interventions role which like we said makes them a quasi development bank.
Here is a breakdown of how much they have spent
- N300 billion for Real Sector Support Facility (RSSF)
- N220 billion disbursed to the Micro-Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund (MSMEDF)
- Nigeria Incentive Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) got N75 billion
- The Nigeria Electricity Market Stabilization Fund (money to discos and gencos) received N213 billion.
- The Nigeria Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) support at N50 billion for the Export Refinancing and Restructuring Facility
- The Non-oil Export Stimulation Facility received N500 billion.
The CBN Governor further explained why these spending occurred;
“The far reaching objectives of the CBN in the implementation of schemes and programmes for real sector development focus on the inherent potential in the sector is-a-vis our conviction that the sector has sufficient employment capabilities, high growth potentials, contributes significantly in accretion to foreign reserves, expands the industrial base and apparently diversifies the growth potentials of the national economy.”
The question on the minds of naysayers is has this policy succeeded in creating jobs, GDP growth and improved foreign reserves?
