The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has disclosed plans to extend the single-digit interest rate of its various intervention facilities to March 1, 2023.
The development was disclosed by the CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, at a news conference in Abuja, following a meeting of the Bankers Committee.
According to Emefiele, the apex bank would be reviewing the intervention programmes, to ensure that they continue to achieve the desired goals.
“Although interest rates on our various intervention facilities are expected to revert to nine per cent effective March 1, 2022, we are announcing that the rates will remain at five per cent for another year”.
This is because of the promising trajectory we have established in economic growth and job creation.
“In effect, the concessionary interest rate of five per cent on our intervention facilities will now be extended until March 1, 2023,” Emefiele said.
Furthermore, he noted that the CBN, working with the Database Management Systems, and participating financial institutions, had granted over N3 trillion as intervention loans, which was critical to the nation’s economic recovery and employment generation.
Meanwhile, one of the CBN interventions to drive economic recovery is the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP).
According to Emefiele, the bank had disbursed N948 billion to 4,478,381 smallholder farmers, who cultivated 5.
2 million hectares of farmland across the country, under the ABP, and has created about 12.
5 million direct and indirect jobs.
”Also, under its Targeted Credit Facility, meant to help households and businesses that suffered significant losses during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bank disbursed N368.
79 billion to 778,000 beneficiaries comprising 648,052 households, and about 130,000 SMEs,” he said.
The CBN governor added that the bank also deployed N1.
452 trillion to 337 projects in agriculture, manufacturing, services and mining under the Real Sector Support Facility.
“For the AGSMEIS programme, which caters to SMEs in agribusiness, a total of N134.
63 billion was released to 37,571 SME projects, of which 67 per cent were directly agriculture-related projects, 22.
5 per cent in services, while the balance was in fashion, Information Technology and related sub-sectors.
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Agro Nigeria
CBN Extends Single-Digit Interest Rates on Intervention Facilities to 2023