This was disclosed in a communiqué issued by the CBN
Governor, Godwin Emefiele, after the last Monetary Policy Committee meeting
held in Abuja.
He stated that the funds were expended on 71 projects across
healthcare, manufacturing and agriculture sectors.
“Furthermore, under the 100 for 100 Policy on Production and
Productivity, the Bank has disbursed the sum of N20.78 billion to nine projects
in healthcare, manufacturing, and services. This brings the cumulative
disbursements under the facility to N114.17 billion to 71 projects across
healthcare, manufacturing, services and agriculture,” he said.
The CBN programme, launched in January 2022, is for a select
100 private sector companies with projects that have the potential to
significantly increase domestic production and productivity, reduce imports,
increase non-oil exports, and overall improvements in the foreign exchange
generating capacity of the Nigerian economy.
According to the guidelines for the implementation of the
initiative, the CBN fixed the maximum loan amount that a participant could get
at N5bn.
“The initiative, which shall be bank-led, will be rolled
over every 100 days (that is, quarterly) with a new set of companies selected
for financing under the initiative,” it stated.
In collaboration with relevant stakeholders, the apex bank
said the initiative would be implemented with a focus on micro- and
macro-economic impacts, including the creation of sustainable jobs, the
development of local content, production output, capacity utilisation and
integration into global value chains.
“Loan amount shall be a maximum of N5bn per obligor. Any
amount above N5bn shall require the special approval of CBN’s management,” it
said.
According to the guidelines, the broad objective of the
initiative is to reverse the nation’s over-reliance on imports, by creating an
ecosystem that targets and supports the right projects with the potential to transform
and catalyse the productive base of the economy.
Highlighting the specific objectives of the initiative, the
CBN said it was designed to catalyse import substitution of targeted
commodities, increase local production and productivity, increase non-oil
exports, and improve the foreign exchange-earning capacity of the economy.
It said key activities covered under the initiative would be
existing businesses and projects (brownfield) with the potential to immediately
transform and catalyse the productive base of the economy, and new projects
(greenfield) with equal potential may be considered under the initiative,
subject to CBN management’s approval.