Emefiele made the disclosure in a post-Monetary Policy Committee meeting briefing.
Meanwhile, the committee decided by a unanimous vote to hold all monetary policy parameters constant for the 14th month around the Monetary Policy Rate of 11.5 per cent. By that, MPC held the asymmetric corridor of +100/-700 basis points was also retained, same for the Cash Reserve Ratio at 27.5 per cent, while Liquidity Ratio was also kept at 30 per cent.
MPC said tightening will increase the cost of funds and constrain output growth. It also argued that loosening will lower policy rates, ease liquidity pressure and stimulate additional credit creation which will boost output growth. Apart from that, it said loosening will further widen the negative interest rate gap and compound the price distortion in the money market which could fuel inflationary pressures.
According to the communique that was read by Mr Emefiele, interventions continued largely in the manufacturing as well as industry, agriculture, energy and infrastructure, healthcare and Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises.
MPC raised concern over the continued security challenge across the country, which it said has remained a major source of concern, saying it has devastating impact on business confidence, foreign investors’ inflows and the overall economic activities.
Many people had said interventions of CBN, especially in agriculture have failed to record significant progress due to insecurity that has affected supply side of the economy.
” The persistence of food security in major food producing areas remains a key downside risk to our recovery. The committee called on security agencies in the country to increase their presence in other to boost public confidence and facilitate the movement of people, goods and services across the country,” the CBN Governor said.
A breakdown of the figures showed that under its targeted credit facility, the bank has disbursed N363.49 billion to 766,719 beneficiaries comprising 638,70 households, 128,000 small businesses. Correspondingly, the bank has disbursed N134.63 billion to 37,571 entrepreneurs under its Agri-Business Small and Medium Enterprise Investment Scheme.
Between September and October 2021, under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, the bank disbursed N43.19 billion to support the cultivation of 250,000 hectares of maize, sogum, soyabeans and rice during the 2021 dry season farming and N5.88 billion to finance six large scale agricultural project under the commercial agricultural agri-business scheme.
Cumulatively, the bank has disbursed a total of N864 billion to 4.1 million farmers, cultivating 5.01 hectares of land, Emefiele said.
The bank also disbursed the sum of N41.2 billion for the commencement of the Brown Revolution, a large-scale wheat programme to win Nigeria off import by 35 per cent during the first year alone.
In addition, the bank disbursed the sum of N261.92 billion for 42 additional projects under the N1 trillion manufacturing intervention. Cumulatively, the bank has disbursed the sum of N1.08 trillion under this scheme.
According to Emefiele, as part of its resilience to support the health sector, the bank disbursed N5.39 billion to nine healthcare projects under the healthcare sector’s intervention facility between September and October 2021. The bank has also cumulatively disbursed the sum of N108.65 billion to hospitals and pharmaceutical industry. 54 of the 117 projects funded are for hospital services.
The committee expressed gratification that the funding under the health sector has resulted in the establishment of two new cancer centres in Nigeria. Over 59 MRI and more than 42 city scan centres all over the country within a space of 18 months.
To further promote entrepreneurship development among Nigerian youth, the bank recently approved the implementation of the tertiary institutions’ entrepreneurship scheme designed to create paradigm shift among undergraduates and graduates of tertiary institutions in Nigeria from white-collar jobs towards entrepreneurship development.
Under the mass metering programme, Emefiele said N8.65 billion was disbursed to four distribution companies under the scheme’s phase-o. The sum of N47.66 billion has been disbursed so far for the acquisition of 858,026 electricity metres.