CBN Applauded For Forex Restriction on Maize Import
By UDO ONYEKA
The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN has received applauds for restricting foreign exchange access for maize imports.
The Maize Association of Nigeria, MAAN, said the apex bank acted in the best interest of the economy, urging farmers to explore the opportunities presented by the restrictions to increase production capacity.
MAAN President, Abubakar Bello who made this known in Abuja on Monday listed achievements of the last planting season of maize.
He said though the association was targeting about 25 million metric tonnes of maize production in this year’s planting season, it might suffer about 25 percent reduction due to COVID-19 pandemic. According to him, maize farmers have cultivated about 250,000 hectares of maize in this year’s wet season.
He said in the 2020 planting season, the CBN had supported the value-chain of maize production, providing the needed input from land preparations to harvesting, aggregation, and storage.
Bello who noted in this wet season programme, 250,000 hectares of land has been cultivated by MAAN members, said the group would work with its partners to double maize production.
Meanwhile, the apex bank has said 60 per cent of the N220 billion, Micro Small and Medium Enterprises, MSME fund will go to women, as part of its developmental role and mandate of promoting a sound financial system.
The CBN also said that two percent of the wholesale component of the fund would go to economically active persons living with disabilities and 10 per cent provided for start-up businesses.
The apex bank said this in a circular on, “Guidelines for micro, small and medium enterprises development fund for non-interest financial institutions,” which was posted on its website.
The circular said, “The sub-sector is characterized by huge financing gap which hinders the development of MSMEs.
“Section 6.10 of the Revised Microfinance Policy, Regulatory and Supervisory Framework for Nigeria, stipulates that ‘a Microfinance Development Fund shall be set up, primarily to provide for the wholesale funding requirements of MFBs/MFIs’. “To fulfil the provisions of section 4.2 (iv) of the policy, which stipulates that women’s access to financial services to increase by at least 15 percent annually to eliminate gender disparity, 60 per cent of the Fund has been earmarked for providing financial services to women.”
