Ife: Central Bank’s Finance Interventions Timely, Yielding Positive Results

Nume Ekeghe

Development Consultant and Lead Consultant, Industry and Private Sector Development, ECOWAS Commission, Professor Ken Ife has noted that the interventions by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in the economy, which were put at N3 trillion, have been timely and has yielded positive results.

Ife, disclosed this while speaking to members of the Finance Correspondents Association of Nigeria (FICAN), in a virtual presentation at the second edition of the association’s 2022 monthly capacity building programme.

He said programmes like the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP), Targeted Credit Facility (TCF), Real Sector Support Facility (RSSF), Healthcare/Pharmaceuticals Facility, Electricity Stabilisation Facility, 100 for 100 PPP and RT 200 Forex programmes all have significant impacts in the lives of Nigerians and Nigeria as a whole.

He specifically said, “More people could have died from starvation and hunger in Nigeria that COVID-19 and the victims of the insecurity put together if decisive action was not taken to tackle food security through CBN’s Anchor Borrowers Programme.”

He said that the unemployment challenge, which he described as a demographic time-bomb, should leave no one in no doubt of the consequences of under 35 year young people, who make up 65 per cent of Nigeria’s population, with unemployment rate of 48 per cent and underemployment rate of 22 per cent, and only seven per cent of graduates finding employment.

He also added that Nigeria’s economy jumped out from recession in just one quarter (December 2020) and this was only possible because of the quantitative monetary and fiscal policies responses, including of course, a higher order of targeting of CBN’s domestic finance intervention at the real sector of the economy.

He also recommended that commercial and development banks should ideally have a business advisory desk in each branch that should be the first port of call of prospective businesses seeking loan from the Central Bank of Nigeria’s 100 for 100 Policy on Production and Productivity (PPP).

According to him, a pool of business advisers would improve the quality of business plans, reduce the rejection rate of applicants and increase the take-up of the loan facilities.

In an effort to stimulate the flow of credit to the real sector of the economy and reverse the nation’s over-reliance on imports, the Central Bank of Nigeria introduced the 100 for 100 Policy on Production and Productivity (PPP).

The apex bank received 224 applications, valued at N294.91 billion for real sector projects in agriculture, energy, healthcare, manufacturing and services in the first tranche.

Similarly, as some Nigerian farmers get set for the new planting season, Prof. Ife said a total of N948 billion has been disbursed to farmers as loans through the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) of the CBN in-conjunction with the commercial banks, as at the second week of February, 2022.