Yemisi Izuora
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has disbursed the sum of $2.83 billion for utilization in the critical sectors of the economy between December 2016 and January 2017.
Acting Director, Corporate CommunicationsDepartment, Mr. Isaac Okorafor who made the disclosure, stated that manufacturing, raw material and agriculture among others topped the disbursements which targets key areas like employment generation and wealth creation 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.
In the foreign exchange utilization figure indicate that the sums of $1.839 billion and $0.989 billion respectively
Commenting further on the development, Okorafor, stressed the determination of the Bank to continue to ease the foreign exchange pressure on critical sectors.
The CBN had in the month of November 2016, 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.