CBN issues N670bn as stimulus package for businesses, households

CBN gives N670bn as stimulus package for businesses and households.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has put N670 billion, out of the N3.5 trillion stimulus package into various sectors in the economy as part of efforts to soften the impact of the COVID-19.

This was made known by CBN Director, Development Finance Department, Mr. Yila Yusuf, during an interview on a programme monitored on ARISE NEWS Channel called “ArisExchange.”

This is coming as the apex bank has uncovered a, “Framework for Advancing Women’s Financial Inclusion in Nigeria,” to build upon the 2018 National Financial Inclusion Strategy (Revised).

“The central bank released a stimulus package worth N3.5 trillion and as we speak today, we have provided funding in excess of N670 billion across various sectors,” he said.

Yusuf listed the sectors that benefitted from the fund to include agriculture, manufacturing and services. According to him, the agriculture sector was allocated 40 per cent of the amount; manufacturing – 33 per cent and services – 27 per cent.

For agriculture, he said the intervention included the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, which is the major food programme of the federal government where he said the apex bank has so far disbursed in excess of N180 billion for the wet season.

“And we are planning for the dry season. As you are aware, there were floods in some parts of the north-west and so it is important that we do a major intervention during the dry season. It is going to be the largest that has been done so far in the country. In construction, there are some many projects going on at the free trade zones and the same thing in services. We are really trying to keep jobs, promote production and enhance supply,” he explained.

He said the central bank is deploying both conventional and unconventional monetary policy tools to tackle the impact of the pandemic on households and businesses.

“All over the world, such tools are being used. What we did as a central bank was to: reduce interest rates on all our interventions from nine per cent to five per cent; we granted regulatory forbearance on certain loans and we did target funding to various sectors.

“To keep businesses running, we started with the N50 billion targeted facility, which Governor Emefiele has increased to N100 billion. As we speak, we have disbursed in excess of N73 billion. We also provided N1 trillion for manufacturing. So, our interventions are focused on keeping jobs and promote production,” he added.

He said the central bank was focused on price stability, to encourage domestic production and ensuring that there is a lot of output.

“So, funding has to be provided at a time like this when the pandemic is ravaging the world. A lot of countries have gone into the protectionist mood and if you look at agriculture, countries such as Thailand, Vietnam and others that are traditionally food exporters are keeping all their food in their silos. So, we really need to bridge that gap.

“One of the things the central bank has done, working with the ecosystem is to look at how to improve yields. Traditionally for maize, we are doing around two to three metric tonnes per hectare and we are looking at how to improve that to five metric tonnes, to be able to cover that gap,” he added.

Meanwhile, the central bank has unveiled a, “Framework for Advancing Women’s Financial Inclusion in Nigeria.”