TheCable

The Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) has introduced a new initiative to generate $200 billion from non-oil exports and increase foreign reserves.

The initiative ‘Race to $200 billion in FX Repatriation (RT200FX) Programme’ will stimulate non-oil exports with a $200 billion FX income target in the next three to five years, according to the apex bank.

Gowin Emefiele, CBN governor, disclosed this on Thursday at a press conference in Abuja after consultation with the Bankers’ Committee.

He said the programme would be operated through different facilities such as value-added export facility, non-oil commodities expansion facility, non-oil FX rebate scheme and biannual non-oil export summit.

He added that due to the large disparities between the exporters of raw commodities and exporters of semi-finished products, CBN would be adopting schemes and facilities that would help boost Nigeria’s foreign exchange value chain.

“Given these alarming disparities between the exporters of raw commodities and exporters of semi-finished products, we believe that the value-added export facility is the first step of getting back some of the foreign exchange that we rightly deserve. Indeed we believe that this facility will also accommodate e-commerce business,” Emefiele said.

“The second facility is the non-oil commodities expansion facility. This facility will also be a concessionary facility designed to specifically post local production of exportable commodities. It will ensure that expanded and new factories that are financed by the value-added facility are not starved of inbuilt raw commodities in their production cycle.

“A massive boost into such commodities will also endow and moderate the prices of those commodities so much that the expected increase in the demand for them will not become a pressure for aggregate prices in the market.”

Emefiele said there are enormous benefits attached to facilities in the RT200 programme.

“It will ensure that expanded and new factories that are financed by the value-added facility are not starved of inbuilt raw commodities in their production cycle,” Emefiele added.

“A massive boost into such commodities will also endow and moderate the prices of those commodities so much that the expected increase in the demand for them will not become a pressure for aggregate prices in the market.

“We believe that the biannual non-oil summit will help us achieve our ultimate goal of $200 billion in non-oil export in the next three to five years.

“The RT200 programme is not intended to be a silver bullet to all our problems in the economy, rather, it is the first step to ensure that the CBN can carry out its mandate effectively and efficiently, which guarantees the preservation of our scarce commonwealth and the stability of our national currencies, the naira and the stability of our foreign exchange.”

He, however, said there is a need for accessible ports and urged the state governments to play their roles in ensuring a structured export terminal.