The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said it has disbursed a total of $355.74 million for raw materials imports in the month of October.
A statement by the bank said the amount was about 40.99% of the total 867.83 million dollars CBN special interbank foreign exchange package. Out of the 356 million dollars CBN raw materials FX intervention last month, the highest amount goes to school fees, medicals and other invisibles.
Second in the order of forex release was petroleum industries with 150.81 million dollars while the manufacturing sector received 91.27 million dollars. On the list include agriculture, aviation and finished goods. The Central Bank says the disbursements were based on a total of 7,792 requests that were received for vital raw materials and spare parts sourcing.
It would be recalled that the CBN had given access to about 7,792 requests for foreign exchange valued at over 867 million dollars to manufacturers and other strategic actors in the Nigerian economy, according to a statement.
The statement by acting Director of Corporate Communications Department, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, said the access was in continuation of CBN’s resolve to ease foreign exchange pressure on manufacturers.
CBN noted clearly that the access was given through inter-bank window to enable manufacturers and strategic actors to source for vital raw materials and spare parts for their respective industries. He added that the figure was derived from a summary of the Forex Utilisation for the month of October.
However, the summary indicated that the raw materials sector received the highest allotment, getting access to foreign exchange valued at 355.7 million dollars representing 40.99 per cent of the total value. He noted that “statistics from the CBN in Abuja showed that manufacturing and petroleum industries got access to 91.2 million dollars and 150.8 million dollars respectively. “Companies and other interests in the agriculture sector got access to 13.7 million dollars for the period, while entities in the aviation sector received 10.3 million dollars.’’ The director stated that finished goods and others got allotments of 43.8 million dollars and 10.7 million dollars respectively. Invisibles, comprising of school fees, students’ upkeep and medicals, among others, received 191.3 million dollars, representing 22.05 per cent of the figure, he stated.
Okorafor pointed out that the release of the figures underscored the transparency of the apex bank in foreign exchange management. He added that the CBN remained committed to its pledge to ease foreign exchange pressure on manufacturing and agriculture sectors through forward sales under the new flexible foreign exchange regime.
