The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has N2.126 trillion in unpaid funds from its intervention programme, which has remained unpaid since 2018.
This is according to the CBN Development Finance report detailing the loans to different sectors of the economy over the past years.
Accordingly, the loan, which was sourced from the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) of deposit money banks, forms the N2.408 trillion total loan disbursed to subnational governments and businesses across the country when the programme was initiated in 2018.
The paid loans represent only 11.71 per cent—N282.04 billion—of the total loans disbursed.
The Differentiated Cash Reserve Ratio, DCRR, intervention was established in 2018 to increase FX earnings and job opportunities, diversify the revenue base and provide sustainable inputs for the industrial sector of the economy.
The programme had around 499 beneficiaries, and interest rate payments for the programme stood at N51.47 billion, with N67.3 billion overdue.
DAILY POST recalls that CBN released guidelines for disbursing funds to banks for lending from their Cash Reserve Ratio, CRR. The apex bank had stated that the projects to be funded must be geared towards backward integration and import substitution.
The agricultural and manufacturing sectors received N6.002 trillion in intervention from the apex bank, and a total of N10.3 trillion was disbursed as intervention finance from the CBN over the past nine years. This represents about 57.78 per cent of the total funds.
Olayemi Cardoso, the governor of CBN, repeatedly said that the bank would narrow its focus to its core function.
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