Manufacturing industries in Nigeria have been given access to foreign exchange valued at over $660m in the inter-bank market to source raw materials and spare parts for their industries courtesy of the interbank forex market.

The Central Bank of Nigeria’s acting Director, Corporate Communications, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, in a statement on Monday said that the measure by the CBN was in line with its promise to ease foreign exchange pressure on manufacturing and agricultural businesses through forward sales under the new flexible Forex regime.

He said that the sum sourced by the manufacturers was to facilitate the procurement of raw materials for agricultural, pharmaceutical, automobile, aviation, plant and machinery, power, telecommunications, and printing,

He said, “The CBN is committed to ensuring that manufacturers of goods for which Nigeria does not enjoy comparative advantage are able to get letters of credit (LCs) to import the required materials for their businesses.”
The measure is coming after Erisco Foods Limited announced the closing down of its N4bn tomato paste processing plant in Oregun, Lagos State.

The Company’s President, Mr. Eric Umeofia, said it was closing down its 450,000 tonnes tomato plant, sacking 1,500 workers and moving its operations to China.

Umeofia has said the decision was due to the refusal of CBN to allocate Forex to the company for importation of raw materials

Okorafor said that since the CBN introduced restrictions on the sourcing of Forex for 41 items from the inter-bank market, the move had greatly benefited local manufacturers in the country.

He urged manufacturers to take advantage of the policy which would enable Nigeria to reclaim its status as a major producer of goods through backward integration initiatives.

According to him, this will necessary push to Nigeria to conserve billions of forex being spent on import bills annually.

tonaydo:
Donald Trump is leading massively in Rivers and Akwa Ibom. We are yet to get reports from Ekiti and Lagos.

Brilliance9000:


Typical Afonja and not minding their business...it is in thier blood to interfere with other people's business. From Biafrra to Shiite and America election. SMH

Keneking:
Did Emefiele had to wait till his Igbo brother shut down his business before doing the needful.

CBN gov must go.

omenka:
Haba na brotherly, you too.

Have not had. The "did" already took care of the past tense of the verb.

How those your friends na? Been a while I saw them.

@post: hope this gives some breather to the companies. We need it.

Keneking:


Thanks for correcting my sentence. I was in a hurry because that man called Emefiele must just GO

bigtt76:
Where's that crying baby-Erisco tomanto man ...person nor fit play with you again? Small thing you vex carray a whole company comot Naija

Sealeddeal:
Because Erisco pulled out.
Erisco foods has been begging CBN for less than 20million dollars. After closing his company and retrenching 1500 workers CBN grant manufacturers access to $600million. who is deceiving himself who?

vabok:


He should have been a bit patient...

tonaydo:
Donald Trump is leading massively in Rivers and Akwa Ibom. We are yet to get reports from Ekiti and Lagos.

vabok:


He should have been a bit patient...

diegwu01:
ERISCO has less that 200 workers. This I know.

bigtt76:
Where's that crying baby-Erisco tomanto man ...person nor fit play with you again? Small thing you vex carray a whole company comot Naija