CBN to Disburse N3.5bn Rebates to Exporters

* RT200 policy gains $60m export proceeds in two months  

*eNaira hits 756,000 downloads
Nume Ekeghe

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has revealed plan to disburse N3.5 billion as rebate incentives to exporters of semi-finished and finished product as part of efforts to realise its target of attaining $200 billion from non-oil exports over the next three to five years.

The Managing Director/CEO, Fidelity Bank, Mrs. Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe, disclosed this during a virtual press briefing at the end of a Bankers’ Committee meeting yesterday.

She disclosed that the RT200 policy had a total of 150 beneficiaries who brought in export proceeds of $60 million from various levels of finished and semi-finished export.

She said: “At the meeting of the bankers’ committee today, the Central Bank Governor announced the immediate release of rebates totaling N3.5 billion incentives to various exporters in fulfillment of his promise on the policy of the race to $200 billion from non-oil exports to boost the foreign exchange inflows into the country.

“This policy was rolled out in February 2022. The initiative is to encourage value addition to export products of Nigeria. Specifically, the policies focuses on value addition in place of immediate which is semi-finished products, intermediate, which is semi-finished products and completely finished products.”

She further added: “You will recall that the central bank governor announced rebates of N65 for every dollar of export proceeds sold to another end-user and that the proceeds from the exports that is sold to another end-user will attract a rebate of N65 while the proceeds from exports utilised by the exporter will attract a rebate of N35 for every dollar of the proceeds utilised by the exporter.”

According to her, the CBN Governor also pronounced long-term financing of single-digits loans for state governments as an incentive to set up export processing zones and terminals and anticipates more support by states to enhance export proceeds.

She added: “These rebates we just announced would be paid quarterly to exporters who qualify and the initiatives to the government will be at single digits and there’ll be long term financing. All this is to ensure that weboost the foreign exchange inflows into the country by ensuring that we ramp up our exports.”

On her part, the Managing Director GTBank, Mrs. Miriam Olusanya, who spoke on the central bank’s digital currency, the eNaira said: “Since it was launched, we have seen 756,000 downloads of the App. In terms of the consumer wallet, we have seen 165,000 consumer wallets and 2,800 merchant wallets.

“The advantage of the eNaira is that it is at no cost. One of the things the CBN want to achieve is that it will remain cheaper even if subsequently there is a cost to it. It will still remain cheaper than other transactional channels.

“And the eNaira is a digital currency that has legal backing. The future of money is digital but it is essential that we embrace one that has legal backing and issued by a central bank. Second advantage is that it is not fluctuating. It is same vale with the naira. It is in and out at the same rate with the naira  

“Currently, it is an App. We are moving to the second phase and the plan is to be able to onboard the unbanned using the USSD platform. This will be able to aid financial inclusion. This channel is cheaper, reliable and always available. It supports digital economy, improve economic activities.”

Also, the Chief Executive Officer of Wema Bank, Mr. Ademola Adebise, said the NQR code that was launched last year by the Nigerian inter-bank settlement system (NIBBS) would soon be acceptable in other countries.

 He said: “The NQR code will be acceptable in well over 176 countries. So, the Committee decided that after appraising the progress made on the adoption to increase the level of the payment platform considering the huge benefit it brings to the economy.”

 Speaking further, the Chief Executive Officer of Sterling Bank, Mr.  Abubakar Suleiman said: “Regarding the eNaira, I think this is cutting-edge breakthrough innovation we are talking about and in that sense, the changes and the development would obviously be slow.

“The fact that we have had the courage to start this process, I think is a big step forward. What we are seeing is monthly interaction in the 1000s. So, on a monthly basis, new people are downloading this and that is even before all the other benefits have been attached to it. What we expect to see is that as more merchants start to accept it, and as more platforms start to use it in creative ways to effect payment. More activity can be expected in that regard.”