The Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, yesterday, said that the export proceeds repatriation into the country rose by 40 per cent to $5.6 billion in 2022, buoyed by the implementation of the Race to $200 billion (RT 200) programme.
Meanwhile, the apex bank said it has so far paid N144 billion as rebates to exporters under the rebate scheme.
Emefiele disclosed this in Lagos at the 3rd edition of the biannual RT 200 Non Oil Export summit.
With the theme, “RT200: Challenges and Prospects to Success”, the summit was organised to review the progress of the RT 200 programme introduced in the first half of 2022, with the aim of raising $200 billion in forex earnings from non-oil proceeds over the next three years to five years.
A major pillar under the programme is a rebate scheme, designed to incentivise exporters in the non-oil sector to encourage repatriation and sale of export proceeds into the forex market. Under the scheme, CBN pays N65 rebate for every one dollar of exports repatriated and sold at the Investors and Exporters, I&E window to Authorised Dealers Banks for third-party use or N35 rebate for every dollar repatriated and sold at the Investors and Exporters, I&E for own use.
Emefiele stated: “The RT200 programme has made good progress in export proceeds repatriation since its establishment in February 2022. Available data shows that repatriation due to the programme increased by 40 percent from $3.0 billion in 2021 to $5.6 billion at the end of 2022.
“The momentum for 2023 is equally showing strong numbers and impressive prospects. In the first quarter of 2023, a total of $1.7 billion was repatriated to the economy while about $790 million was sold at the Investors & Exporters (I&E) window year-to-date.”
Speaking further, Emefiele warned against export without documentation saying CBN will soon impose sanctions on shipping lines that engage in such practice.
He said: “We will continue to engage the Nigeria Customs, we will continue to engage Nigerian Ports Authority and we will continue to engage the shipping lines and agents to ensure that we need to nip in the bud the incidences of exporting without documentation.
“What it does is reduce the export earning potential of the country when you do this. I had said that CBN will be beaming some searchlights on undocumented exports and we had advised the shipping lines at that meeting that we will also be monitoring and if we find that they export without documentation we will fine them by placing their accounts on PND.
“We have so far not done anything like that not because we feel that our shipping lines will be responsible to do what is right but if we do not see the kind of cooperation that we expect, I will have to insist that we do what we need to do.”
SOURCE: VANGUARD
