Post by Trade facilitator on Oct 11, 2016 10:38:21 GMT 1
The Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM Bank) and the Central Bank of Nigeria have supported manufacturers and solid minerals exporters with N23.3 billion.
The amount is part of the N500 Billion Export Stimulation Facility secured by two NEXIM Bank stakeholders, namely, the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), from the African Development Bank (AfDB).
This was disclosed by Bashir Wali, acting managing director of NEXIM Bank, who said the N23.3 billion was the Rediscounting and Refinancing Facility (RRF) and Export Stimulation Facility (ESF), adding that N11.9 billion worth of applications from six applicants were being processed by NEXIM Bank.
Wali said this was meant to guarantee sustainable funding for made-in-Nigeria products and improve products competitiveness, with a view to making locally processed and manufactured goods globally competitive.
Speaking through a detailed document obtained by BusinessDay, Wali disclosed that N500 billion Rediscounting and Refinancing Facility (RRF) and Export Stimulation Facility (ESF) was recently secured by the two NEXIM Bank stakeholders, namely, Ministry of Finance and Central Bank of Nigeria from the African Development Bank (AfDB).
“As observed from the above table, while oil revenue has declined by about 60 percent of its peak value in 2013, the non-oil exports value has also declined by 18 percent from $7.2 billion in 2013 to $5.9 billion in 2015, with signs of further decline in 2016 based on the provisional data of $1.107 billion and $664.04 million for Q1 and Q2, 2016 respectively provided by the Bureau of Statistics,” Wali said.
“The recent decline in non-oil exports value receipts and slow growth of exportable commodities in the national export basket is attributable partly to funding constraints caused largely by declining export loans to non-oil sector by banks.
“Significant decrease in external financing sources through advance payment instruments with counter-parties preference lately, for deferred payment arrangements, is reflective of current global economic realities.
“Data on sectoral distribution of loans by banks in the last seven years indicate that export loan peaked at N852 billion in 2008 before declining to N795 billion in 2009, and has dropped consistently since then, reaching a low of N122 billion in 2014,” he stated.
The managing director said the processing and granting of facility to would-be manufacturers and exporters would be executed by some accredited commercial banks with a maximum of ten-year-old tenor, adding: “Of recent, AfDB introduced N500 billion Export Stimulation Facility (ESF) that has 13-year-old tenor, 7.5 percent per annum for facility below or three years tenor, nine percent per annum for facility with over three years tenor which will be processed and given through commercial banks,” he said.
He stressed that six percent of the interest goes to commercial banks, while one percent processing fee and two percent will go the CBN.
While reeling out loans so far processed and granted for investors in the solid minerals and agro-processing industries, Wali revealed that N23.3 billion as the Rediscounting and Refinancing Facility (RRF) and Export Stimulation Facility (ESF) have so far been doled out, adding that N11.9 billion worth of applications from six applicants are being processed by NEXIM Bank.
But, speaking on some parameters considered in granting the loans, the managing director noted that in line with economic thinking in the country, compliance to packaging standard and value- addition are part of vital issues to be looked into in order to prevent situation that makes “our goods rejected outside the country because they do not comply with international standard of exporting.”
“We believe that this effort will jumpstart local industries for exports of locally-produced products and services.
Source: www.businessdayonline.com/nexim-cbn-afdb-support-manufacturers-solid-minerals-exporters-with-n23bn/
