By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has released the list of beneficiary banks that received the $660 million it disbursed to the manufacturing sector through the interbank market over a one month period.
The list shows that the banks received a total of $660,173,976.46.
Following claims in some quarters that manufacturers were finding it difficult accessing forex, Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department, CBN, Mr Isaac Okorafor, a fortnight ago, had revealed that $660 million was made available to the manufacturers through the interbank market to source for raw materials and spare parts to boost production capacity over a one month period.
He said that the provision was achieved through forward sales under the new flexible foreign exchange regime.
Mr Okorafor explained that the banking watchdog was committed to ensuring that manufacturers of goods for which Nigeria did not enjoy comparative advantage were able to get letters of credit to import the required materials for their business.
He reiterated that since the CBN introduced restrictions on the sourcing of forex for 41 items from the interbank market, the endeavour had yielded positive results.
Meanwhile, the banking watchdog sold N119.92 billion in short-dated treasury bills at an auction last Wednesday, with mixed yields, according to data published yesterday.
The apex lender sold a total of N32.43 billion of the 3-month paper at 13.99 per cent, broadly unchanged from 14 per cent at the last auction on November 2.
It sold N22.82 billion of 6-month debt at 17.40 per cent, down from 17.50 per cent at the previous auction, while a total of N64.67 billion of 1-year bills was sold at 18.70 per cent, compared with 18.30 0 per cent previously. Total subscriptions rose to N158.07 billion compared with N122.96 billion at the last auction, the data showed.
Adedapo Adesanya