The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Mr Godwin Emefiele, has revealed that the central bank has disbursed about N3 trillion to Nigerians on intervention programmes.
This was disclosed while he was speaking in an exclusive interview with Arise Television.
Emefiele has employed non-traditional monetary policy tools with his intervention programmes targetted at MSMEs, such as smallholder farmers, pharmaceuticals and health institutions.
What the CBN said
He said, “And I can tell you this, between 2020 and now, our data shows that we have disbursed at least N2 trillion, almost N3 trillion in loans to households, to MSMEs, to smallholder farmers, to pharmaceuticals and health institutions.
“We have also given these funds to some of our large agricultural companies that want to get back again to business, to manufacturing companies who are accessing long term 10 years loan with two-year moratorium with single-digit rate. I have data that shows we are playing our part.”
Emefiele stated that the recently established “100 for 100 PPP loan” policy was introduced to help create jobs, and that the central bank will do everything possible to supply foreign cash for the import of plants and machinery.
He also said that the scheme would complement President Muhammadu Buhari’s ambition to create millions of jobs and make loans available at low rates for lengthy periods of time.
“In terms of the prerequisites, at least 80 per cent of the employees within these new corporate entities would have to be Nigerian,” Emefiele insisted.
“We know that people would like to play some games but I can assure you that the central bank has the resources to monitor such. Even our current intervention programmes, whether in agriculture or in manufacturing, those who have accessed those facilities will tell you that at least twice a year, our people go to check and investigate to know whether those projects have been set up and are meeting their objective,” he added.
In case you missed it
During the MPC meeting held in July 2021 in Abuja, the CBN Governor revealed that the apex bank had disbursed the sum of N736.51 billion to 3,734,939 smallholder farmers, cultivating 4.6 million hectares of farmland.
