The Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, has said the CBN would probe all undocumented export transactions in order to recover any export revenue the government may have lost as a result of such illegal activities.
Emefiele stated this in Lagos at a meeting with non-oil exporters and where the bank also relaunched its N550bn export facilities.
The N550bn export facilities consist of the CBN N500bn Export Stimulation Loan and the Nigeria Export-Import Bank N50bn Direct Intervention Fund.
The CBN governor said the decision to come up with the two export facilities followed the Central Bank’s efforts to energise the non-oil export revenue due to the drop in crude oil prices.
He also said the action would lead to an increase in job creation and boost economic growth.
Emefiele said, “It is true that banks and exporters are being accused of non-remittance of export proceeds. Let me say that in terms of value, I don’t have how much it is.
“They have agreed that there are some levels of undocumented export and I have told them that we are going to dig out those numbers; and once we dig those numbers out, whatever may have been lost by way of revenue to the government in this process would be realised.”
On the N550bn export facilities, Emefiele said the NEXIM Bank, the CBN Development Finance Department, and the Agriculture Office of the CBN governor had been mandated to come up with a framework for the disbursement of the funds.
According to the CBN governor, the N550bn Export Stimulation Facility and the NEXIM Bank N50bn Direct Intervention Fund would focus on the export of cash crops such as cocoa, sesame seeds, rubber, and solid mineral
Emefiele said, “In the last two years, the country’s revenue has dropped and the CBN and the Federal Government have been thinking of various means to create other means of survival for the country rather than just rely on oil.
“It all stems from the call from Mr. President that there is a need for us to diversify our economy away from oil. Doing this means that we have to look at other areas through which we can source foreign exchange for the country.
“We keep saying that there was a time in this country when we survived solely on the export revenue from agriculture.
“The basic issue is that we have decided to bring back to the table the N500bn Export Stimulation Facility that we had proposed two years ago, as well as the N50bn Direct Intervention Fund from the Nigeria Export-Import Bank.
“This is basically going to be on an acronym that we are reintroducing: PAVE — Produce, Add Value and Export. So we had a lot of engagements with the exporters and we would be looking at various products in the non-oil sector.
