CBN granted over N3trn in intervention loans to cushion Covid-19 impact – Emefiele

OBINNA EZUGWU

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), working with Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) and participating financial institutions, granted over N3 trillion in intervention loans to business in the aftermath of Covid-19 pandemic, governor of the apex bank, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, has said.

The CBN governor who made the disclosure at the Special Press Briefing of the Bankers’ Committee in Abuja on Thursday, noted that the interventions have undoubtedly been one of the critical ingredients for our economic recovery and employment generation.

Giving a breakdown of the intervention, Emefiele said, “Specifically, under the Anchor Borrowers Programme, we have disbursed N948 billion to 4,478,381 smallholder farmers who cultivated 5.2 million hectares of farmland across the country, thereby creating 12.5 million direct and indirect jobs.

“Under our Targeted Credit Facility, which was meant to help households and businesses that suffered significant losses during the pandemic, we have disbursed N368.79 billion to 778,000 beneficiaries comprising 648,052 households, and about 130,000 SMEs. We have also disbursed N1.452 trillion to 337 Large real sector projects in agriculture, manufacturing, services, and mining under our Real Sector Support Facility. In healthcare, 122 major healthcare projects have been funded to the tune of N115.36 billion. These healthcare interventions went to 31 pharmaceutical and 91 hospital projects. This intervention helped to support acquisition of 59 Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanners, 42 Computer Tomography (CT) scanners, and 4 Oncology screening machines.

“For the AGSMEIS programme, which caters for SMEs in the agribusiness space, a total of N134.63 billion has been released to 37,571 SME projects of which 67 percent were directly in agriculture-related projects, 22.5 percent were in services, while the balance were in fashion, IT, and related sub-sectors.

“Under the Nigeria Electricity Stabilization Facility, a total of N229 billion has been disbursed to 9 DisCos to help cover their financial obligations to upstream market participants. These interventions have helped to significantly improve liquidity in their ecosystem and increase electricity generation from 4,000 MW in 2020 to over 5,000 MW as of September 2021.

“The Bank has also released N47.83 billion to 10 DisCos under the National Mass Metering Programme for the procurement of 858,026 electricity meters. Because of these disbursements, the revenue collection for DisCos increased significantly to over N69 billion as of December 2021.”

Emefiele who painted a picture of the devastating effects of Covid-19 in the country’s economy, noted that it was important to go through the numbers painstakingly to, according to him, “show that the problems we face in this country do have solutions as long as we work objectively to understand them and dispassionately to solve them.”

He continued, “It is obvious from the foregoing that the impact of these measures helped the country make the fastest recovery from recession ever recorded and changed the trajectory of inflation to an 8-month downward spiral. These policies and measures also led to a significant improvement in diaspora inflow from an average of US$6 million per week in December 2020 to an average of over US$100 million per week by January 2022.”

Emefiele, however, noted that the apex bank is reviewing the intervention programmes to ensure that they continue to achieve the desired results.

He said, “the lessons we have learnt from this crisis have been invaluable in helping us with serious introspection with a view to finding long-lasting and homegrown solutions to these perennial problems.

“Although interest rates on our various intervention facilities were expected to revert to 9 percent effective March 1, 2022, we are announcing that the rates would remain at 5 percent for another year in view of the promising trajectory we have established in economic growth and job creation. In effect, the concessionary interest rate of 5 percent on our intervention facilities would now be extended until March 1, 2023.”