The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has given one week deadline to the Nigeria Emport and Import (NEXIM) Bank and Development Finance to update the framework for the N500 billion export stimulation facility and N50 billion direct intervention fund.
The export stimulation facility and the intervention fund was introduced two years ago by the CBN to diversify the economy away from oil and to expedite the growth and development of the non-oil export sector.
Consequently, the CBN has decided to reintroduce the scheme with an acronym PAVE- Produce, Add Value and Export.
Godwin Emefiele, governor of CBN disclosed this at the weekend at a meeting with exporters, banks and other stakeholders in Lagos.
“So we had a lot of engagements with the exporters and we would be looking at various products in the non oil sector- cocoa, cashew nuts, palm produce, sesame seeds, solid minerals and rubber”, he said.
He said all revenue which the Federal Government has lost as a result of undocumented exports will be recovered.
The development is part of apex Bank efforts to support the activities of exporters in the country so that more export revenues will come in from non oil sector to support the economy.
He said the framework is going to be developed by NEXIM, the Development Finance Department of the CBN and the Special Adviser on agriculture of the Governor’s Office.
Emefiele disclosed that the CBN has included solid minerals in the export intervention fund saying Nigeria has a lot of solid minerals and they are going to be covered under this programme. More so, the CBN has included exporters in it anchor borrowers programme.
“we are saying that with this meeting, the various source of revenue into the country should not just be oil, neither should it just be foreign portfolio investors or FDI. We have seen some of the exporters bringing their monies into the country, but we are saying we want to encourage them with this N500 billion export stimulation
facility, so that they can increase the volume of export earnings that is routed back into the economy to help us grow the economy and service other forex obligations in the country”, he said.
Hope Moses-Ashike
