CBN creates N500bn non-oil export stimulation facility

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has established a N500 billion non-oil export stimulation facility as part of intervention programmes in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors to enable businesses to expand their scale of production.

In a remark at the Zenith Bank’s 2021 export seminar on Tuesday, CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, said the intervention was in addition to helping investors to meet growing domestic demand for goods while also providing goods for the export market.

The N500 billion he explained is domiciled with the Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM).

“We believe that the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AFCFTA) offer significant opportunities for the Nigerian private sector to expand into new markets, and seek new export opportunities, particularly in the area of Manufacturing, ICT, Agriculture and Financial services, given our growing advantage in these areas relative to our counterparts in other parts of Africa.”

He expressed the belief that full implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AFCFTA) would give Nigerian firms preferential access to markets in Africa worth $504.17billion in goods and $162bn in services.

“I believe that we should seize this opportunity to ensure that Nigeria serves as a significant hub for international and domestic manufacturing companies seeking to serve the West, Central and East African Markets,” he said while noting that AFCFTA will provide an opportunity for young talented Nigerians who are already energetic and technologically savvy to expand their services across the African region.

In addition, Emefiele encouraged said Nigerian banks, already playing a significant role in expanding across the Africa n continent to also leverage such presence to support Nigerian businesses seeking to expand into new markets in Africa, by providing trade facilities to those with strong potentials for growth.

While stating that CBN has taken considerable steps to improve the productive capacity of businesses, which would enable them to take advantage of export opportunities in Africa, the Governor disclosed that through the Trade Monitoring System portal (TRMS) CBN “is also helping to reduce the time it takes to complete the export documentation process, as faster turnaround time could help to reduce delivery time for goods destined for exports and enable businesses to expand their output.

“Today, businesses can complete their NXP applications on the TRMS portal in 30 minutes relative to two years ago, where it could take as much as two weeks to complete the process.”

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CBN creates N500bn non-oil export stimulation facility