•CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele
The lawmakers wanted to know the progress so far made in the implementation of the programme.
The upper chamber asked the apex bank to consider implementing expeditiously, the approvals and disbursements of intervention facilities to firms in the real sector that merited such facilities.
The resolutions followed the adoption of a motion by Senator Mao Ohuabunwa (Abia North) titled: The need for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to Implement its Intervention Funding Programmes to qualified Nigerian Companies and Exporters.
Senator Ohuabunwa noted that the Federal Government, aware that the country was undergoing serious economic recession, with factories shutting down with the attendant loss of job creation, decided to set up the intervention fund programme to revitalise the industries.
He added that to achieve the target, “government resolved to activate the Nigerian economy through the introduction of different types of long tenored intervention facility programmes, with the aim of stimulating output production, enhancing value addition and creating employment for Nigerians. These are initiatives that many Nigerian companies and commercial banks have keyed into with great expectations.”
The lawmaker noted that based on these projections and expectations, “the CBN, in accordance with section 31 of the CBN Act, 2007 has introduced several intervention funds, including N235 billion fund for manufacturing, refinancing and restructuring of facilities of bank loans, a N500 billion debenture stock–with N200billion set aside for refinancing/restructuring of SMEs/manufacturing portfolios. N300billion is applied to the power and airline projects; a non-oil N500 billion low interest export stimulation facilities was also introduced to compliement the already existing N300 billion Real Sector Support Facility (RSSF) established in December, 2014 to further assist the sustainable growth of a recessive economy.”
He observed that in the midst of these massive intervention efforts, the CBN has encouraged the local affected companies, factories and exporters to access the facilities through Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) such as Bank of Industries (BoI), NEXIM Bank and other direct applications from commercial banks, yet very little progress has been made to strongly fund the requirements of many of such key institutions.
He said Nigerians were expected to push the growth of the nation’s economy within the expectations ignited by the CBN interventions.
The lawmaker lamented that the various companies, factories and exporters encouraged by the CBN to go through the rigorous process of accessing the intervention fund have mostly come out disappointed.
The disappointment stemmed from the capacity of the CBN to provide expeditious intervention that can rejuvenate their companies and pull the economy out of economic recession.
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