TheCable

Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), says the apex bank will begin to publish and advertise the names of companies that benefit from the non-oil export rebate payment under its Race to $200 billion in FX Repatriation (RT200FX) initiative.

Emefiele spoke on Tuesday at the RT200 Non-oil Export summit in Lagos.

He said public disclosure will commence from next week and will cover beneficiaries from January to March.

Launched last year, the RT200FX programme was established to stimulate non-oil exports with a $200 billion FX income target in the next three to five years.

The scheme operates 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.

On the FX rebate side, the CBN had promised that exporters would enjoy a rebate of N65 for every dollar of non-oil export proceeds sold to third parties at the importers and exporters (I&E) window.

The regulator said it had paid out over N3.5 billion as rebates to eligible non-oil exporters as at June 17, 2022.

But some stakeholders at the event on Tuesday, raised concerns bordering on transparency in the disbursement of the rebates.

Elucidating on the issue, an exporter said while some banks are ready to pay rebates on some products, others banks refuse to do so.

He said there is little transparency in the rebate payments as some “banks credit exporters what they feel like”.

“We don’t know what exactly they receive from the CBN. When we submit a claim for, say, N200 million, you may see N100 or N150 million,” he said.

“They will say some expenses are not being paid by CBN, and no further explanation.”

Responding to the complaints, Emefiele promised that the identities of the beneficiaries will now be made public.

“We’ll begin to advertise publicly, the amount and the names of the companies that have benefited,” the CBN governor said.

“We will advertise for those who benefited from January to March. We will advertise it by next week so that Nigerians will see.”