The first disbursement of rebates to exporters under the RT 200 policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) commences this week just as the initiative has been adjudged as yielding expected outcomes.
According to the CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, who disclosed this while giving an update on the initiative during the InfraCorp term sheet signing with the independent asset managers in Lagos on Friday, the payment is to encourage other exporters that the era of delay in rebate disbursement is gone forever.
“You will recall that we effectively started in March. As I have said, by latest the first or second week after the end of a quarter, in this case,[first quarter which ended by March 31st, 2022], latest by around 14, we will issue the cheque to make payment to all those who have exported and their proceeds have come in and they sold them to the rebate window for the good of other people that want to use them to import other goods and services into the country”, he said.
He added: “So the first set of disbursement or payment for the rebate has been assured and will be done by next week [this week], and we are actually doing it to make it public so that Nigerians can know, to encourage other exporters that the era you export and you expect your rebate, and your rebate never came after two; three; four; five years, that era is gone. We are determined to make sure that it succeeds and with the kind of numbers that we get from the banks, we are very excited that it is working well.
“The idea is to say that we can no longer continue to rely on revenue coming from crude oil to fund the import obligations of the country. There are at least four sources from which foreign exchange can be raised to fund the import obligations of the country: revenue coming from crude oil; export proceeds; diaspora remittances and foreign direct and portfolio investments.”
On the signing of the Term Sheet with the independent asset managers, to operate together with Infracorp to deliver infrastructure to the nation, InfraCorp CEO, Dr. Lazarus Angbazo, described the four asst Managers: AAA Consortium, Chapel Hill Denham, Africa Infrastructure Investment Managers in Nigeria and Sanlam as internationally recognized experts in infrastructure with deep network of financial partners to help InfraCorp unlock private capital by leveraging the local and international pool of funds to make sure that Nigeria gets better infrastructure.
From Omodele Adigun
