The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has disbursed the sum of N9.714 trillion through various intervention funding programes across several real sector industries.
According the bank’s Development Finance Department (DFD) Report made available at its 2022 Retreat, in Abuja, yesterday, the Manufacturing/Industry sector had the highest allocation of 32.6 percent.
It was followed by Energy/Infrastructure and Agriculture with 23. 1 percent and 22.8 percent allocations, respectively.
Speaking at the retreat, the Director of DFD, Mr. Philip Yusuf, said that the CBN was at the forefront of food security in the country.
He noted that although some people had raised concerns about rising food inflation, despite the bank’s massive interventions in the agricultural sector, the nation would have faced famine if the CBN had not intervened.
His words, “The CBN has been at the forefront of ensuring Nigeria achieves food security in collaboration with other fiscal authorities also stimulating growth in collaboration with ministry of industry.
“Food security in Nigeria has received massive boost in the last five years since the CBN intervened in the sector to curb over-reliance on imported goods.
“We have tranversed the length and breadth of Nigeria, empowering farmers and MSMEs in access to Finance and agric-business and also using target credit facility. It became a comfort for households especially during the covid 19.
“For those looking at food inflation to discredit the work we have done in the development finance department, I just want to tell them that Nigeria is part of a global financial system and can be prone to global shocks.
“With the rising price of food, we would have faced severe famine if not for our interventions and the agric-value chain have witnessed tremendous progress because of our interventions which we believe has set Nigeria is on the part of sustainable food sufficiency.”
In his remarks, the Deputy Governor in charge Corporate Services, Mr. Edward Adamu promised greater support for the DFD to further its interventions.
He added that all regions of the country would feel the impact of the interventions.
Meanwhile, the apex bank, yesterday, invited financial sector institutions to submit applications for participation in its Regulatory Sandbox.
According to a statement signed by the CBN’s Director, Payments System Management Department, Musa Jimoh, the objective and scope of the Sandbox is to identify and encourage innovative solutions to improve service quality, enhance customer experience in the delivery of payment and financial services in Nigeria.
It stated: “The Sandbox will identify and encourage innovative solutions that will enhance the design and delivery of payment and financial services in Nigeria.
“The overarching objective is to improve service quality, enhance customer experience, and foster financial inclusion, amongst others.
“The Sandbox is suitable for financial products, services and solutions that are innovative.”
On eligibility, the CBN said: “All entities (e.g. digital lenders, application developers, start-ups, financial technology providers, etc.) with innovative financial solutions are eligible to apply to the Sandbox. Applications are also welcome from existing CBN licensed institutions”.
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