The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has shelled out over N300 billion to assist operators in the Small and Medium Enterprises space, including the Healthcare, Agriculture, and Manufacturing sectors to abate the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic on their businesses.
The Central Bank of Nigeria disclosed this in a communique issued by the Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria, which was read by the Governor of the regulatory bank, Godwin Emefiele, on Monday.
Noteworthy is the fact that the CA-COVID Private sector intervention scheme and other sector-specific facilities are not included in the disbursed fund.
The committee while recognising the supportive developmental roles of the CBN towards addressing some structural issues amid COVID-19 disclosed that the apex bank has released N49.19 billion out of the N50 billion Household and SME facility to over 92,000 beneficiaries since the facility was launched in April 2020.
The CBN has also disbursed over N152.9 billion to the manufacturing sector to finance 61 manufacturing projects and another N93.6 billion to the Healthcare sector, amongst many other sector-specific facilities.
Emefiele said, “The N100 billion healthcare and N1.0 trillion manufacturing and agricultural interventions meant to support the rebound in growth from the impacts of the pandemic on the economy is laudable.”
The committee also lauded the apex bank coordinated CA-COVID – Private sector intervention scheme, which had mobilized over N32 billion to support the economy, lives, and livelihoods. It was hopeful that upon further drawdown of the intervention facilities, the much-needed reset and rebound of the Nigerian economy would become a reality.
Nairametrics reported that Emefiele revealed that the aggregate domestic credit (net) grew by 5.16% in June 2020 compared with 7.47% in May 2020. He also said that the Committee commended the CBN Loan-to-Deposit Ratio (LDR) initiative to address the credit conundrum, as the total gross credit increased by N3.33 trillion from N15.56 trillion at end-May 2019 to N18.90 trillion at end-June 2020.
Emefiele also ascribed the progress to manufacturing, consumer credit, general commerce, information & communication, and agriculture, which are productive sectors of the economy.
