CBN boosts manufacturing, agriculture with $2.83bn

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says it disbursed 2.83 billion dollars to critical sectors of the economy between December 2016 and January 2017.

Mr Isaac Okorafor, the Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department of CBN, made this known in a statement on Thursday in Abuja. He said that manufacturing, raw materials and agriculture topped the disbursements targeted at the employment and wealth generating sectors of the economy.

He said that 609 million dollars and 228 million dollars were released for raw materials in December 2016 and January 2017, respectively. He said that manufacturing attracted 53 million dollars and 71 million dollars, respectively during the same period.

Okorafor said that the foreign exchange utilization figure indicated that 1.8 billion dollars and 0.9 billion dollars, respectively were extended to critical sectors like manufacturing, agriculture, petroleum products and airlines, among others in December 2016 and January 2017.

He reiterated the CBN’s determination to continually ease the foreign exchange pressure on critical sectors.

“It will be recalled that the CBN, in the month of November 2016, supported critical sectors with 1.07 billion dollars equivalent of foreign exchange for agricultural machinery, industrial raw materials, education and personal travel allowances.

“This was to source industrial raw materials and spare-parts through the interbank foreign market.’’