Forex Utilization: CBN boosts manufacturing, agriculture, others with $2.83b

The Central Bank of Nigeria says it disbursed $2.83 billion to critical sectors of the economy between December 2016 and January 2017.
Isaac Okorafor, the Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department of CBN, made this known in a statement on Thursday in Abuja.
Okorafor said manufacturing, raw materials and agriculture topped the disbursements targeted at the employment and wealth generating sectors of the economy.
He said that $609 million and $228 million were released for raw materials in December 2016 and January 2017 respectively.
He said that manufacturing attracted $53 million and $71 million during the same period.
Okorafor said that the foreign exchange utilization figure indicated that $1.8 billion and $0.9 billion respectively were extended to critical sectors like manufacturing, agriculture, petroleum products and airlines, among others in December 2016 and January 2017.
He reiterated the CBN’s determination to continually ease the foreign exchange pressure on critical sectors.
Okorafor said: “It will be recalled that the CBN, in the month of November 2016, supported critical sectors with 1.07 billion dollars equivalent of foreign exchange for agricultural machinery, industrial raw materials, education and personal travel allowances.
“This was to source industrial raw materials and spare-parts through the interbank foreign market.”