The Central Bank of Nigeria has lent N9.3tn to businesses out of which manufacturers lead the pack of beneficiaries with 31 per cent.
The apex bank has recovered N3.7tn of the loan while N5tn was not yet due.
Director of Development Finance, CBN, Dr Yusuf Yila, disclosed this to journalists on Wednesday in Abuja at a post-287th Monetary Policy Committee press conference, noting that this was the first time manufacturers were getting a long-term finance scheme with reasonable moratorium.
He noted that intervention funds had been slowed down in the bank’s efforts to rein in inflation.
He further said that N1tn had been disbursed under the Anchor Borrowers Programme while N400bn had been recovered.
He warned debtors to repay as the bank had collaborated with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to set up a desk with a view to recovering the loans.
“Any person who borrowed from us will pay back. We have also started recovering those loans from state governments. We have been doing a long workout programme on them. Any state government that has benefitted from our fund and is already in default, over a six-month period, we’re going to be debiting them at N50 million every month, and we have started that programme,” he said.
He said most of the loans were securitised and critical sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, health, exports and SMEs had benefitted from the intervention.
He admitted that the bank was at risk around the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.
The CBN raised inflation to 15.5 per cent on Tuesday, from 14 per cent in July, as inflation accelerated to 20.5 per cent in August.
