Nahimat Adekoga
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said that it disbursed a total of $355.74 million for raw materials importation in October, 2016.
The apex bank in a statement issued in Abuja said the money was part of CBN’s intervention targeted to cushion effect of the current economic crisis on manufacturing industry’s demand for raw materials.
The statement noted that the disbursed amount was about 40.99% of the total 867.83 million dollars CBN special interbank foreign exchange package.
According to the apex bank, out of the 356 million dollars CBN raw materials FX intervention last month, the highest amount goes to school fees, medicals and other invisibles.
The financial banks governing body also hinted that petroleum industries received 150.81 million dollars while manufacturing sector received 91.27 million dollars, and that on the list also were also agriculture, aviation and finished goods.
It said that the disbursements were based on a total of 7,792 requests that were received for vital raw materials and spare parts sourcing.
It was gathered that the apex bank gave access to about 7,792 requests for foreign exchange valued at over 867 million dollars to manufacturers and other strategic actors in the Nigerian economy, according to a statement.
Meanwhile, the Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department, Isaac Okorafor, said the access was in continuation of CBN’s resolve to ease foreign exchange pressure on manufacturers.
The access, Okoroafor noted, was given through inter-bank window to enable manufacturers and strategic actors to source for vital raw materials and spare parts for their respective industries.
He added that the figure was derived from a summary of the Forex Utilisation for the month of October and that summary indicated that the raw materials sector received the highest allotment, getting access to foreign exchange valued at 355.7 million dollars representing 40.99 per cent of the total value.
He noted that statistics from the CBN in Abuja showed that manufacturing and petroleum industries got access to 91.2 million dollars and 150.8 million dollars respectively.
“Companies and other interests in the agriculture sector got access to 13.7 million dollars for the period, while entities in the aviation sector received 10.3 million dollars.’’
The director stated that finished goods and others got allotments of 43.8 million dollars and 10.7 million dollars respectively.
“Invisibles, comprising of school fees, students’ upkeep and medicals, among others, received 191.3 million dollars, representing 22.05 per cent of the figure, he stated.
Okorafor pointed out that the release of the figures underscored the transparency of the apex bank in foreign exchange management.
He added that the CBN remained committed to its pledge to ease foreign exchange pressure on manufacturing and agriculture sectors through forward sales under the new flexible foreign exchange regime.
