Emefiele also explained that the N300 billion Real Sector Support Facility (RSSF) was part of the CBN’s efforts to unlock the potential of the real sector for output growth, value added productivity and job creation. According to him, the facility would support large enterprises for start-ups and expansion of the financing needs of N500 million up to a maximum of N10 billion.
He said: “The real sector activities targeted by the facility are manufacturing, agricultural value chain and selected service sub-sectors. The facility is expected to improve access to finance by Nigerian Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to fast-track the development of the manufacturing, agricultural value chain and services sub-sectors.”
Another N213 billion Nigerian Electricity Market Stabilisation Facility is aimed at settling certain outstanding debts in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI). The facility covers legacy gas debts and the shortfall in revenue during the Interim Rule period (IRP).
It is expected that this will guarantee the take-off of the Transitional Electricity Market (TEM). Already, over N56.68 billion disbursed to five generating companies and five distribution companies.
The observed challenges in the power sector, Emefiele said, are interconnected with the unexpectedly huge revenue shortfalls in the industry, which needed to be fixed.
He said the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund (ACGSF) was established to provide credit guarantees on facilities extended to farmers by banks up to 75 per cent of the amount in default net of any security realised.
The bank chief explained that the period under review witnessed an increase of loan limits for unsecured lending from N20,000 to N50,000 and that the loan limits for secured lending to corporate bodies under the ACGS rose from N10 million to N50 million.
To boost agriculture financing, the ACSS was inaugurated to develop the agricultural sector of the economy by providing credit facilities to farmers at single digit interest rate to enable large scale farmers exploit the untapped potentials of the sector.
Statistics from the CBN showed that since June 2014, 60 per cent of the Commercial Agricultural Credit Scheme (CACS) funds have been dedicated to six focal commodities (rice, wheat, cotton, sugar, dairy products and fish), which have been utilising huge resources from the dwindling foreign reserves. Culled from The Nation
