The Federal Government says it has secured $5 billion from Afreximbank to strengthen the economy, including a $3 billion targeted at de-risking the economy.
Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Doris Uzoka-Anite, revealed this while delivering her address at the Manufacturing Association of Nigeria (MAN) summit at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Thursday.
The Ministry secured $5billion funds, including a $3b for de-risking Nigerias business environment with AFREXIM bank at an event in the Bahamas in June, the minister said.
Uzoka-Anite, who delivered her address at the concluding session of the MAN summit in Abuja, said the government is ready to protect the manufacturing sector in Nigeria.
She traced the current shortage of food in the country to increased export of agricultural produce. She added that the government is ready to help the manufacturing sector to increase productivity, but urged the sector to self-regulate export of critical agricultural goods.
The Minister also revealed that the government has attracted $3.5b investment into the automotive sector to ensure cheap, affordable cars further disclosed that the processing of federal governments N75 billion bail-out funds for the manufacturing sector is being fast-tracked to ensure that the Bank of Industry can begin to disburse the loans.
On the critical issue of patronage of locally made goods, she assured the manufacturers that her Ministry would religiously implement the Federal Governments Executive Orders 3 and 5 to promote made-in-Nigeria goods.
She said, “We know that inflation at 33.9%, is high, but the high interest rate is aimed at bringing down inflation. Ours is moderate and the high interest rate is part of the CBN efforts.
Reducing interest rates now will lead to policy inconsistency. We have created opportunities for the export of over 3000 different agricultural products as market access increases, for Nigerias goods”.
We shall be launching a $10billion Diaspora Fund to enable MSMEs capital to fund their businesses. You can rest assured that when it comes to the patronage of Made-in-Nigeria goods, I am your number one advocate, she added.
