Manufacturing Association of Nigeria,MAN and Exporters have lamented their inability to access the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN’s N500 billion non-oil Export Stimulation Facilities, ESF, saying the criteria and processes involved in assessing such intervention fund is rather cumbersome for them to cope.
Otunba Francis Awe, who represented the President of MAN, Mr. Frank Jacobs at the finance correspondence conference in Lagos, said ” It is difficult to access the ESF because of the criteria requirements ,the bureaucratic processes and the huge documentations in the framework guidelines.”
Explaining further he said, “The intervention Fund in itself is good, but when the framework for disbursement was carried out the relevant government authorities did not consult the real practitioners to seek for their inputs, now the fund is just there and very few people can access it due to faulty framework.”
In the same manner,Mr. Adeyemi Adeniji, who represented Mr. Tola Faseru, President National Cashew Association of Nigeria, NCAN, said “The Land Use Act is another problem that has made it difficult for people to access land for farming and even manufacturing. Also, the issue of funding as well, the banks are not willing and ready to give out long term loans, even the intervention funds from the CBN is not easy to get because of the stringent requirement and the collaterals that banks would require.”
According to him ” Before the discovery of oil, there was a country called Nigeria and known for agricultural produce, but later , Nigerians were carried away and left agriculture that use to be the mainstay of the economy for oil. That was where we got it wrong and relied on oil that could not be sustained. Nigeria that occupied first position in cocoa production in Africa has been overtaken by other countries. We produce 170,000 cashew nuts and yet we don’t have processing plants due to unfavourable government policies for local manufacturers and lack of infrastructure.”
He advised that government should create enabling environment and policy incentives for local manufacturers.
According to him” The few cocoa processing plants had collapsed because of policy summersault of the Government. So, Government should not give incentives or grants to raw material exporters rather incentives should be given to the real manufacturers that add value to raw materials for either local consumption or exports. Processing of raw materials should be encouraged because that is what will generate greater foreign exchange earnings for the country.
Speaking as well, Director, Development Finance Department of the CBN, Dr. Mudashiru Olaitan, said the apex bank is committed towards diversifying the economy, saying” some of the bottlenecks facing the manufacturers are beyond the CBN.”
He stated that the CBN has taken measures to enhance non-oil export and create wealth for Nigerians. Both the CBN and banks want exporters and manufacturers to explore opportunities presented by the N500 billion non-oil Export Stimulation Facility as well as the expansion of the export credit Re-discounting and Refinancing Facilities (RRF) to develop the economy, stimulate their operations, and create jobs for the people.
He called on farmers to leverage on the Anchor Borrowers’ Scheme unveiled by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), insisting that the project has the capacity to boost the country’s non-oil export earnings.
Also speaking at the event, Group Head, Agric Finance, Heritage Bank Limited, Olugbenga Awe said in as much as banks would want to lend to non-oil sectors of the economy, the lenders always lookout for customers’ history of previous transaction to ensure that the loans would be repaid.
The bank, he added, can also consider the export volume, frequency of export, payment methods and transaction cycle. He said that banks are also confronted with the problems of inadequate export finance resources, inadequate infrastructure to control products quality and lack of dependable source of local product prices and supplier information among others.
