The Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) said, $1.7 billion had been repatriated into the Nigerian economy in the first three months of 2023, even as it posed to publish names of companies and individuals that benefited from the RT200 export rebate program.
It also vowed to place Post No Debit on the accounts of shipping lines and agents that connive with exporters to take products out of the country without proper documentation.
Speaking at the third edition of the RT200 bi-annual Export Summit in Lagos on Tuesday, the governor of the CBN, Godwin Emefiele noted that, of $1.7 billion was repatriated to the economy, about $790 million was sold at the I&E window year-to-date.
Stating that the RT200 program has made good progress in export proceed repatriation since its establishment in February 2022, Emefiele said: “Repatriation due to the program increased by 40 percent from $3.0 billion in 2021 to $5.6 billion at the end of 2022. The momentum for 2023 is equally showing strong numbers and impressive prospects.”
According to him, the balance of the proceeds remained in the Export Domiciliary Accounts of exporters.
Meanwhile, he noted that the apex bank has been patient with shipping lines as well as agents which it expects to do the right thing.
Noting that at an earlier meeting, it had informed shippers that, “we will also be monitoring and if we find that they export without documentation we will find them by placing their accounts on PND. We have so far not done anything like that, because we feel that our shipping lines will be responsible to do what is right but if we do not see the kind of cooperation that we expect, I will have to insist that we do what we need to do.”
While responding to questions from an audience on transparency of the beneficiary of the RT200, Emefiele said: “We would begin to advertise publicly the amount and the names of the companies that have benefited from the Rt200. We will advertise all those that benefitted from January till March and we would advertise it by next week so Nigerians can see it.
“We want to assure you that the bank is committed to strengthening and expanding foreign exchange supply into the market.
tant in this clarion call of expanding the supply of foreign exchange inflow into the economy.
“For exporters, flying the flag of Nigeria in the international market, the Bankers’ Committee and the CBN stand ready to partner with you to achieve your goals. You can benefit from the many financial programs introduced by the CBN through your bank and as such grow your business exponentially.
“We are ready to break our backs for exporters to achieve this goal and that is the reason we said when we launched this program that we have about N500 billion available for you as facilities to be able to do whatever you want to do to process your export materials. The disbursement of that facility is sub-optimal.
“By being responsive to exporters we are able to source export proceeds that help our economy, we are able to generate export proceeds that wean us away from depending on the CBN as our source of forex to meet our imports.”
On his part, the governor of Lagos state, Babajide Sanwo-Olu noted that “the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) is demonstrating serious commitments to the success of these initiatives through a range of incentives, aimed at encouraging increased activities in the non-oil export sector as well as repatriation of foreign exchange into the Nigerian economy.
“It is also encouraging to note that this program, in addition to several other initiatives by the federal government is yielding the desired results as shown by the recent reports of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council indicating that our non-oil exports grew by about 40 percent n 2022 to $4.2 billion.
“The theme of this summit RT200: Challenges and Prospects to Success is very instructive as it provides the opportunity for policymakers and other stakeholders in the non-oil sector to access the effectiveness of these policy vis-a-vis the expected outcome.
“We must be courageous and think deeply in evaluating all ideas and figuring out how to combat even some of our challenges, including topical issues, like the human resource exports, also known as the Japa phenomenon into sustainable advantages for national developments and a source of non-oil exports that could result in huge diaspora remittances.
“It is my expectation that since no policy is cast in stone participants at this summit will use this opportunity to review the policies and programs in line with current realities and recommend appropriate strategies and new ideas to overcome identified challenges that might be mitigating against the full realization of the objectives of this program.”
