TheCable

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says it disbursed $2.83bn to “critical sectors of the economy” between December 2016 and January 2017. 

Isaac Okorafor, CBN’s acting director, corporate communications department, made this known in a statement issued on Thursday.

Okorafor said manufacturing, raw material and agriculture, topped these disbursements because CBN targeted employment generating and wealth-creating sectors of the economy.

“The sum of $609 million and $228 million were released for raw materials in the months December and January respectively, while manufacturing also attracted the sum $53 million and $71 million respectively during the same period,” the statement read.

“In the foreign exchange utilisation figure indicate that the sums of $1.839 billion and $0.989 billion respectively were extended to critical sectors like manufacturing, agriculture, petroleum products and airlines among others in December 2016 and January 2017.”

Okorafor said the bank is determined to continue easing the foreign exchange pressure on critical sectors.

In November, CBN supported critical sectors with $1,070,175,392.04, equivalent of foreign exchange for agricultural machinery, industrial raw materials, education and personal travel allowances to source industrial raw materials and spare-parts through the interbank foreign market.