The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has warned manufacturers whose revenues are in naira not to take dollar loans.
CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele said this yesterday during a facility tour of Tolaram Group projects and Lagos Sea Port under construction.
Tolaram Group manages the Lagos Free Trade Zone.
Emefiele said the apex bank will continue to provide naira funding and advised that where the revenue stream is in naira, dollar loans should be forgone.
“So, for any entrepreneur that wishes to do business in Nigeria, we will provide naira funding and will always advise that particularly if your revenue stream is in naira, such company should avoid taking dollar loans. Take cheap naira loans at a single-digit interest rate with a two-year moratorium,” he said.
Emefiele said the CBN will continually encourage people to take advantage of such loans to drive industrialisation in Nigeria and get a manufacturing business back alive again.
He said the CBN has provided N100 billion intervention fund to Tolaram Group under the Differentiated -Cash Reserve Ratio or through the Commercial Agriculture Credit Guarantee Scheme.
He revealed that this represents only 10 per cent of the N1 trillion, which is about $2 billion of the project embarked by the company.
