This is the second time that the apex bank is extending the forbearance period so that beneficiaries can enjoy cheaper loans for a longer time, as the economy continues to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The apex bank made this known in a circular to all banks and other financial institutions signed by the director, Financial Policy and Regulation department, Chibuzor Efobi.
According to the circular, this took effect retrospectively from the 28th of February, 2022.
Effectively, individuals and corporate organisations who had taken facilities under the CBN Covid interventions, it stated, will over the next one year continue to pay five per cent as against the nine per cent interest rate which the facilities had before the Covid-19 pandemic.
The CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, also recently reviewed the performance of the intervention programmes aimed at stimulating productivity in manufacturing, agriculture, energy, infrastructure, healthcare and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
According to him, between November and December 2021, under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP), the bank disbursed N75.99 billion to support the cultivation of over 383,000 hectares of maize, rice and wheat during the 2022 dry season, bringing the cumulative disbursements under the programme to N927.94 billion to over 4.5 million smallholder farmers cultivating 21 commodities across the country.