Manufacturers alleges banks delaying CBN’s N1tr stimulus package – The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has accused Money Deposit Banks (DMBs) of making it difficult for manufacturers to access the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN’s) N1 trillion COVID-19 stimulus package.
The Director General, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Segun Ajayi-Kadir, who stated this in a statement yesterday, said the N1 trillion facility and other funds created by the CBN at liberal lending rate have not been adequately accessible to manufacturers.
He accused the banks of prevarication, saying the banks claim that they have not received the framework for the administration of the facility from the CBN.
The CBN had in a bid to assuage the high cost manufacturing environment and improve the competitiveness of Nigerian manufactured products, created several development funding windows with “single digit” interest rates to support real productive businesses including manufacturing.
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However, while acknowledging the excellent initiative of the CBN in setting up the N1 trillion COVID-19 stimulus facility, Ajayi-Kadir in the statement made available to The Nation, said MAN observed that most of its members who applied were not able to get it.
He said according to the CBN, only 76 companies have received N300 billion, which translates to 30 per cent, in one year, saying according to its members, “the banks are claiming that they have not received the framework for the administration of the facility from the CBN.”
The MAN chief said no doubt, “development funds are critical to driving manufacturing investment and by extension, production, because the single digit interest rate for development funds far contrasts with the more than 25 per cent rate charged on commercial banks’ lending.”