18 February 2017, Abuja — The Central Bank of Nigeria said on Thursday three key sectors of the economy received the largest foreign exchange allocations between December 2016 and January.
The CBN said out of a total of $2.83 billion disbursed during the two months to critical sectors of the economy, manufacturing, agriculture and raw materials got the lion’s shares.
CBN spokesperson, Isaac Okorafor, said these sectors were considered by the government as a prime target for employment generation and wealth creation sectors of the economy.
Mr. Okorafor said raw materials got $609 million and $228 million allocations for December and January, while manufacturing got $53 million and $71 million respectively.
Besides, he said about $1.839 billion and $0.989 billion respectively were utilised in critical sectors like agriculture, petroleum products and airlines, among others in the corresponding period.
Mr. Okorafor said the CBN was determined to continue to taking steps to ease the foreign exchange pressure on critical sectors of the economy.
In November 2016, the CBN supported critical sectors of the economy with about $1.07 billion equivalent of foreign exchange for agricultural machinery, industrial raw materials, education and personal travel allowances, to source for industrial raw materials and spare parts through the interbank foreign market.