Forex Utilization: CBN Disburses $2.83 Billion In 2 Months, To Ease Pressure On Critical Sectors

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced that it had disbursed the sum of $2.83 billion for utilization in the critical sectors of the economy between December 2016 and January 2017.
A statement by the Acting Director of Corporate Communications, Mr. Isaac Okorafor said that manufacturing, raw material and agriculture among others topped the disbursements which were targeted at employment generating and wealth creating sectors of the economy.
The CBN promised to continue to ease the foreign exchange pressure on critical sectors, even as it also said that in December last year and January this year, the sum of $609 million and $228 million were released for raw materials. The statement added manufacturing also attracted the sum $53 million and $71 million respectively during the same period.
It said that the sums of $1.839 billion and $0.989 billion respectively were extended to critical sectors like manufacturing, agriculture, petroleum products and airlines among others in December 2016 and January 2017.
It will be recalled that the CBN, in the month of November 2016, supported critical sectors with $1,070,175,392.04 equivalent of foreign exchange for agricultural machinery, industrial raw materials, education and personal travel allowances to source industrial raw materials and spare-parts through the interbank foreign market. [myad]