The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has expressed hope that export revenue for rebate will reach the $1 billion mark by the fourth quarter of 2022.
According to NAN, this was made known by CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele while addressing a press conference on the outcome of the 13th annual Bankers Committee Retreat in Lagos.
The retreat, which was themed “Increasing the Productive Base of the Nigerian Economy and Non-oil Export Earnings”, provided a unique platform for the Bankers Committee to conduct a summary of the main activities of the banking system during the year.
It also gave them the opportunity to look at some of the global and local developments that they believe will affect the outlook for Nigeria’s banking and financial system over the next year.
Progress so far: Emefiele, who said that great progress had been made in generating non-oil export revenue in 2022, noted that the RT200 program started in February 2022.
- He said, ‘During the six weeks of February and March when the program began, N65 refunds resulted in the repatriation of export proceeds that earned a refund of approximately $62 million.
- “These are not export earnings that did not generate refunds. Let’s not forget that the refund is only for processed products. So when we add in the processed and unprocessed products, like the cocoa and the raw cashew, we actually came to almost $1 billion during the third quarter.
- “And we are starting to think that we should be able to continue to increase. We are looking with hope in the fourth quarter, which we will see in January, we hope that we can reach more than a billion dollars in income from exports and repatriations that will qualify for the refund.
Before RT200: Emefiele recalled that the main bank threatened banks to start looking for foreign currency to meet the needs of their clients and not be completely dependent on CBN sources, before the start of RT200.
- He said: “But looking at the progress that has been made so far, we are talking about $62 million plus $622 million plus $850 million, we are talking about almost two billion dollars.
- “So far, we believe that with the good progress and building on the progress that has been made so far, the CBN will continue to support the FX market, even if it is difficult.
- “We will continue to support the market while the banks themselves continue to increase their own non-oil export sources that can generate foreign exchange through repatriation, which they can use to finance the needs of their clients.”
Annual minimum loan to exporters: The CBN Governor noted that the Bankers Committee also announced a minimum annual loan of N500 billion to exporters.
He explained that there is a need to continue supporting exporters who may need facilities, whether it is to bring equipment with which they can process their products and turn them into a high standard that can qualify to export abroad and earn a higher value to increase the volume. of export repatriations.
- He said, “Therefore, the Bankers Committee decided that every year and it must be measurable, the entire banking industry must provide at least a minimum of N500 billion in loans to export-oriented businesses that will generate measurable export earnings, export earnings no tankers to complement what the CBN is doing.’‘
He added that the CBN will present modalities in which it will insist that bank A must provide a minimum amount of X in export loans and, naturally, the big banks will have to take a bigger share of this pie.
for the records
- RT200 FX program representing the “Race to US$200 billion in currency repatriation”it is a set of policies, plans and programs for non-oil exports that will enable Nigeria to achieve a lofty but achievable goal of US$200 billion in foreign exchange repatriation, exclusively from non-oil exports, over the next 3-5 years.
- Remember that in February 2022, the CBN officially announced the launch of the RT200 FX Program.
- The program had 5 key anchors, namely; Value-Added Export Fund, Non-Oil Commodity Expansion Fund, Non-Oil Foreign Exchange Reimbursement Scheme, Dedicated Non-Oil Export Terminal, and Bi-Annual Non-Oil Export Summit
- Emefiele had noted that the decision to launch the program was in line with the central bank’s new commitment to increase the country’s foreign reserves through revenues from non-oil exports.
- CBN intends the new RT200 FX program to be similar to the Naira4Dollar scheme for diaspora remittances, which offers recipients of diaspora remittances through CBN’s international money transfer operators that are pay N5 for every $1 received as remittance inflow.