The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has reiterated its call on Nigerians not only to focus on the production of commodities in which they have comparative advantage but to produce, add value and export products so as to grow the nation’s economy and job creation.
The Director, Corporate Communications Department of CBN, Osita Nwanisobi, made the call while speaking at the CBN Special Day at the 33rd Enugu International Trade Fair holding in Enugu the state capital.
Nwanisobi said that the theme of the Enugu Fair this year entitled: “Opening up Nigerian Business Windows Competitiveness in the Emerging Global Market”, perfectly fits into the Bank’s drive towards diversification of the nation’s economic base and encouraging the export of non-oil commodities.
“It is noteworthy to state that the Central Bank of Nigeria in its continuous efforts to revive the economy and create access to credit has extended the interest rate of 5% across all intervention loans to March 2023.”The recently launched Tertiary Institutions Entrepreneurship Scheme (TIES) is an innovative financing model that will create jobs, enhance the entrepreneurial ecosystem and support economic growth and development through Agribusiness, Creative Industry, Science & Technology and Information Technology/software development “Specifically, the Bank disbursed the sum of N1.452 trillion to 337 large real sector projects in agriculture, manufacturing, services, and mining under the Real Sector Support Facility.
Among others, he said, on Anchor Borrowers, “the sum of N948 billion has been disbursed to 4,478,381 small holder farmers who cultivated 5.2 million hectares of farmland across the country, thereby creating over 12.5 million direct and indirect jobs.
In his speech, the President of Enugu Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (ECCIMA) Jasper Nduagwuike, commended the apex bank for its various interventions to boost the nation’s economy.
Nduagwuike noted that a trade fair without the participation of CBN is incomplete, adding the Bank had not only participated but had its special day.