On Tuesday, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced that as part of its efforts to encourage the growth of the export value chain in the nation, it has given hardworking Nigerian exporters rebates of nearly N81 billion.
The bank also revealed that the entire amount of non-oil export revenues repatriated into the nation climbed by $1.797 billion in one year, from $3.190 billion to $4.987 billion in 2022, from the total amount returned in 2021.
Speaking yesterday in Lagos at the RT200 biannual conference’s second edition with the following theme: “RT200 Non-Oil Export Program: The Journey So Far”, Only $1.966 billion of this total, according to Emefiele, qualified for the rebate scheme, and only $1.559 billion of that amount was sold via the Investors and Exporters (I & E) window.
The CBN governor asserts that recent events have demonstrated the bank’s ability to uphold commitments made to third parties.
“I know that there have been calls to make all exporters eligible for the rebate, and not just limit it to finished and semi-finished products.
“While we see some justification for this, one of the goals of the RT200 programme is to help quicken the process of industrialisation and encourage exporters to earn more from their export business,” Emefiele stated.
According to him, the conference examines the results of the joint efforts made by all parties involved in the export value chain since the first summit as well as potential areas for future improvement.
Emefiele stated that the Bankers’ Committee and the CBN are prepared to work with exporters representing Nigeria in the world market to help them realize their objectives. He claimed that the numerous financial initiatives launched by the CBN through their bank can help exporters expand their operations.
“Export can transform the economic structure of countries, from simple, slow-growing, and low-value activities to more productive activities that enjoy greater margins driven by technology”, he added.
His words, “We must help our exporters and our economy by adding value to what we produce and export. We are already getting feedback from banks on the interest of exporters to add value to the products they export in order to allow them to benefit from the programme.”
