Bankers’ Committee pledges N500bn annual loan for non-oil exporters
By Rosemary Iwuala
The Bankers’ Committee comprising the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), chief executive officers of Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) and other financial institutions have agreed that banks will grant at least N500 billion in loans to exporters yearly to nurture domestic production and grow Nigeria’s export value.
Godwin Emefiele, the CBN governor , who disclosed this at the weekend after the two-day 13th Annual Bankers’ Committee Retreat in Lagos, said export proceeds will complement what the CBN is doing .
“Realising that tremendous progress has been made in generating non-oil export revenues in 2022, we are talking about $62 million plus $622 million plus $850 million, we are talking of almost $2 billion so far.
We think that with the good progress and on the basis of the progress that we have made so far, the CBN will continue to support the market with foreign exchange, albeit as hard as it may be. We will continue to support the market while the banks themselves continue to ramp up their own sources of non-oil export that can earn FX through repatriation which they can use to fund the needs of their customers,” Emefiele said.
On infrastructure, the retreat resolved to work through InfraCorp to fund the road projects from Lekki to Ondo to facilitate the transportation of goods from Lagos/Lekki ports to other parts of the country.
The retreat also emphasised that in an attempt to boost the volume of export repatriations, there is a need to continue to support exporters who may need facilities either to bring in equipment with which they can process their goods and make them a high standard that can qualify for export abroad and earn higher value.
Over the next few days, the Bankers’ Committee is expected to finalise the strategy, governance framework action plan and assign responsibilities for implementation for the Bankers’ Committee program for 2023 that will achieve the desired results and outcomes. The Sub-committee on economic development and sustainability will also coordinate execution of the programme and thereafter, provide feedback to the CBN and the Bankers’ Committee.
The 2022 retreat, themed “Increasing the Productive Base of the Nigerian Economy – Focus on Boosting Non-Oil Export Revenues,” had in attendance Zainab Ahmed, the minister of finance, subject matter experts in economic analysis, participants in the non-oil production and export value chain, export development authorities as well sustainability finance experts from within and outside Nigeria.
The event centred on the urgent need to activate other non-oil sources of foreign exchange receipts, given the clear realisation that there is a dearth of foreign exchange revenue from the crude oil sales, and the tight global financial market conditions.
According to the Bankers’ Committee, increased inflow of funds through the more sustainable channel of non-oil revenue can be generated to fund the import needs of Nigeria’s import customers while concurrently growing the productive base of the economy and overall gross domestic product (GDP).