Central Bank of Nigeria CBN has released the guidelines for its “Production and Productivity” initiative, through the project “100 projects for EVERY 100 days”. According to the guideline on the apex bank’s website said that the initiative was designed to support the Federal Government’s push to boost productivity and economic diversification. It said that a maximum loan of N5 billion per debtor would be approved under the initiative, adding that any amount over N5 billion would require special approval from his administration.
According to the main bank, the credit line is a long-term loan for the acquisition of plant and machinery, as well as working capital. “The initiative will create the flow of financing and investments to companies with the potential to promote a trajectory of sustainable economic growth, accelerate structural transformation, promote diversification and improve productivity. It is a support to private sector companies with the objective of reducing certain imports, increasing non-oil exports and improving the economy’s ability to generate foreign exchange,” he said.
According to the CBN, the overall objective of the initiative is to reverse the nation’s excessive dependence on imports by creating an ecosystem that targets and supports projects with the potential to transform and catalyze the productive base of the economy. “Specific objectives include: catalyzing import substitution for specific commodities; increase local production and productivity; increase non-oil exports; and improve the economy’s ability to generate foreign exchange ”, he stated. It said that, under the initiative, comprehensive and regular monitoring of specific benchmarks and key performance indicators (KPIs) would be carried out on a regular basis.
“The KPIs will include the increased production of the financed companies; percentage increase in capacity utilization and percentage increase in the volume and value of exports. It will also include a decrease in the volume of imports and the value of industrial raw materials and an increase in the number of jobs created,” said the main bank. It further said that the focal activities will be businesses and existing projects (brownfield) with the potential to transform and reactivate the productive base of the economy. These include manufacturing, agriculture, and agricultural processing; extractive, petrochemical and renewable energy industries; medical and pharmaceutical care, logistics services and trade-related infrastructure; and any other activity that is prescribed ”, affirmed the CBN.
