Mr Godwin Emefiele, the CBN governor made this known, while presenting a communique of the banks 133rd Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the committee reduced the MPR from 12.5 per cent to11.5 per cent at the last MPC meeting in September.

CBN also retained the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) and Liquidity Ratio at 27.5 per cent and 30 per cent respectively.

Emefiele said that the meeting was focused on how to quickly exit the COVID-19 induced recession, which the country recently entered into.

“The meeting was focused not only on price stability but also on the need to speedily take actions to exit the recession.

“In view of these considerations, the choices before the committee were focused on whether to tighten the stance of policy to address rising price levels recognising its primary mandate of price stability; to ease to support output recovery; or to hold to allow existing policy initiatives to permeate the economy.

“The committee noted that although the appropriate response to rising inflationary pressure will be to tighten the stance of policy in order to moderate upward pressure on prices, it nevertheless feels that doing this will exert downward pressure on the recovery of output growth,” he said.

The governor said the MPC also felt that tightening would negate the bank’s desire to expand credit to the real sector at affordable terms not only to boost production but also to increase consumer spending.

“To the committee, tightening is therefore not the appropriate response at this time.

“With the economy, whereas MPC feels that government spending and bank’s expansionary stance will be desirable to support recovery and guide the economy out of recession, it feels loosening will trigger excess liquidity and worsen the inflationary pressure.

“MPC also felt that excess liquidity may impact demand pressure and fuel further depreciation of the naira.

“With respect to a hold position, the committee was of the view that this will be beneficial as it will allow current policy measures to permeate the economy while observing the trend of developments,” he said.

He said that the committee also felt that the heterodox policies of the bank targeted at various sectors were showing positive results that would further engender growth.

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CBN, in a statement by its Development Finance Department, stated that the fund was a built-in strategy to effectively respond to the challenge of youth employment in Nigeria.

The Fund, an initiative of the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, is to be managed by NISRAL Microfinance Bank.

It stated that the major objective of the plan was to address fragmentation of youths initiatives that prevent assessment of impact.

“The Federal Executive Council on July 22, approved N75 billion for the establishment of the NYIF from 2020 to 2023.

“It will provide Nigeria youths with investment inputs required to build successful businesses that can become sustainable employers of labour and contributors to the country’s development.

“The plan targets young people between 18 and 35 years and details the needed actions required to support business establishment, expansion and consequent employment creation for youths in critical economic and social sectors,” it stated.

The apex bank said that the fund was dedicated to investing in the innovative ideas, skills and talents of Nigerian youths.

It added that it would institutionally provide the youths with special window for accessing the funds, finances, business management skills and other inputs critical for sustainable enterprise development.

“The ministry is the lead implementation entity and is responsible for budgetary provisions and for funds mobilisation.

“The fund aims to financially empower youths to generate at least 500,000 jobs between 2020 and 2023,’’the apex bank said.

It added that part of the objectives of the fund was to improve access to finance for youths and youth-owned enterprises for national development.

“It will also generate much-needed employment opportunities to curb youths restiveness, boost their managerial capacity and develop their potential to become the future large corporate organisations,’’ it added.

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This is according to the result of PMI survey released by the Statistics Department of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Tuesday.

Our correspondent reports that the manufacturing PMI for the month of September was 46.9 index points.

The survey revealed that of the 14 subsectors surveyed, six recorded expansion above 50 per cent threshold.

Subsectors that reported expansion were electrical equipment, transportation, equipment, printing and related support activities, chemical and pharmaceutical products, textile, apparel and footwear, as well as cement.

The remaining eight subsectors reported contraction.

They are primary metal, petroleum and coal product, paper products, fabricate metal products, furniture and related products, nonmetallic mineral products, plastic and rubber products and food, beverage and tobacco products.

The survey indicated that in employment level in the review month two subsectors recorded stationary level of employment while the remaining nine subsectors recorded lower employment levels.

PMI for the non-manufacturing sector, however, stood at 46.8 points in October 2020, indicating contraction in nonmanufacturing PMI for the seventh consecutive month.

The survey stated, “of the 17 sub-sectors surveyed, three subsectors reported growth in the following order: electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply, art, entertainment and recreation and Health care and social assistance.

“Eleven subsectors reported declines in the following order: management of companies; utilities; Information and communication; construction; professional, scientific, and technical services; repair, maintenance/washing of Motor Vehicles.’’

Other declining subsectors are wholesale/retail trade; educational services; transportation and warehousing; accommodation and food services and real estate rental and leasing.

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Dr Musa Olasupo, an Assistant Director in CBN and a member, CBN Rice Value Team made this known on Tuesday in an interview with our reporter in Abuja.

He said that RIFAN had assured CBN that Nigerians should expect between nine and 11 million metric tonnes of rice by the end of the year with the support of the bank.

Olasupo said that CBN had financed the construction of rice mills to support food self-sufficiency and security.

He said that the multi-billion naira, 32 tonnes-per hour mill being constructed by the Lagos state government at Imota, “has reached 80 per cent completion and will be completed before the end of the year’’.

He said that Nigeria’s quest for self-sufficiency in rice production had continued to be hampered by issues around quality, price instability and harvesting/processing challenges, among others.

“The bank started the funding process since 2015 and it will continue to fund the millers as part of government’s efforts at revamping agriculture to crash price of rice.

“Once the millers are able to produce more, price will continually come down until it attains an equilibrium,’’ he said.

He said that the bank was determined to support any entrepreneurial initiative aimed at ensuring food security and safeguard the country’s foreign exchange from endless importation of rice available in different varieties locally.

The official said CBN was also funding other rice mills including Labana Rice Mills in Kebbi State and Umza Rice Mill in Kano State, while Dangote Farms was also constructing five mills; two in Jigawa and one each in Kebbi, Zamfara and Sokoto states.

Olasupo said that establishing bigger mills across the country had become imperative so that farmers would grow more paddies to feed the mills and crash the price of rice.

He said that rice consumption in Delta, Benin, Rivers, Beyalsa would be growing to more than 200 million metric tonnes; so there was need to encourage more people build rice mill in the Niger Delta region.

Olasupo said that CBN and management of Bayero University Kano (BUK) had begun talks on how to develop a comprehensive blue print to fund rice production and processing in commercial quantity in the university.

Alhaji Aminu Goronyo, the National President of RIFAN told our reporter that the volume of rice production needed to increase from 6.9 million tonnes per annum to 10 million considering the ever growing population.

He said the CBN was intervening in various ways to crash the price and urged Nigerians not to panic, assuring that in the next few weeks the price of rice would come down as markets would be flooded with local brands of rice.

Goronyo said through the financial effort and the involvement of the CBN and RIFAN, the prices of milled rice would fall.

He said the increase in the price of rice was associated with the high foreign exchange rate to buy inputs, the coronavirus lockdown and floods.

“Things will soon go back to normalcy as the dry season farming will commence by the end of October and this will compensate for whatever that is happening in any location and take care of all the losses.

“Even though we have issue of banditry, this year, there is also a massive production of rice, people have planted en-masse.

“Every little space that can produce rice has been cultivated; so that will compensate for whatever that is happening in any location,’’ he said.

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The framework was released by the Development Financing department of the apex bank through its official website on Monday.

It stated that introduction of the Service-Based Tariff (SBT) in the Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) effective Sept. 1, had put increased emphasis on the need to close the metering gap in the NESI.

“Closing this gap will enhance efficiency of revenue collection by Distribution Companies (DisCos) and thereby facilitate meeting their obligations to other upstream market participants.

“According to analysis provided by Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission, the current metering gap in the NESI – based on recent customer enumeration data – is over 10 million.

“This comprises of unmetered customers as well as customers with obsolete meters that need to be replaced,’’ it stated.

CBN stated that the framework outlines the operational modalities of the CBN financing support to the DisCos (Downstream), and Local Meter Manufacturers (Upstream).

It added that key objectives of the NMMP included increasing Nigeria’s metering rate, elimination of arbitrary estimated billing, strengthening the local meter value chain by increasing local meter manufacturing, assembly and deployment capacity.

“It will support Nigeria’s economic recovery by creating jobs in the local meter value chain and reducing collection losses and increasing financial flows to achieve 100 per cent market remittance obligations of the DisCos.

“ It will also improve network monitoring capability and availability of data for market administration and investment decision making,’’ it stated.

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CBN’s Development Finance Department made this known at the stakeholders’ meeting with Cotton Garment and Textile (CTG) players organised by the bank in Abuja.

The bank expressed worry that most of the textile factories in Nigeria had folded up in spite of Nigeria’s huge potential in the sector.

Mr. Yusuf Yila, the Director, Development Finance Department said that the apex bank was committed to revamping the sector by supporting farmers to cultivate quality cotton lint being the major raw material for the industry.

He said that though a lot had been achieved over the last few years, more still needed to be done.

“Between 2018 and 2020, over 340,000 cotton farmers were engaged under the Anchor Borrowers’ Scheme, and they earned over N31.6 billion.

“We funded over 12 ginneries, creating over 450,000 jobs under the CTG intervention and we expect to do more,’’ he said.

Yila said that capacities of ginneries also increased within the period, adding that cotton lint produced outweighed the annual requirement of the textile companies, despite COVID-19.

“Cotton importation was at zero per cent in 2019, and cotton seeds farming is in full gear.

“Ginneries are now working at over 90 per cent capacity and textile companies have sufficient raw materials.’’

The director said that though smuggling of textile materials into the country had reduced, more still needed to be done to stop it completely.

“Nigeria is still the biggest market for Bangladesh, Turkey, China and India,” he said.

Stakeholders under the aegis of National Cotton Association of Nigeria were represented at the forum.

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The directive was outlined in a circular issued by Mr. Sam Okojere, CBN’s Director, Banking Services Department.

Okojere directed all SWIFT customers to provide information on the outcome of all their Single Customer Payments (MT103) messages to SWIFT, via tracker (Universal Confirmation).

Our correspondent reports that SWIFT is an initiative aimed at improving customer experience through increased transparency in end-to-end payments tracking.

“The conformation should get to SWIFT within two business days on whether the beneficiary’s account has been credited, payment rejected or pending.

“Please note that all financial institutions within the ecosystem will be measured on whether they confirm 80 per cent of their weekly payments.”

He said that SWIFT offered different ways to provide status update through automated or manual methods.

“The channels are Bank Basic Tracker-manual; API calls; Automated MT199 confirmations; Batch confirmations; Full GPI and ISO 20022, which will be available from 2022.

“All banks are strongly advised to review and select the appropriate channel that suits their operations with a view to meeting the deadline of Nov. 22, 2020 set by SWIFT for compliance,’’ he said.

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Mr Osita Nwanisobi, CBN Acting Director, Corporate Communications, gave the warning in a statement on Friday in Abuja.

Nwanisobi said that the apex bank was aware that some fraudulent individuals send messages for such offers, especially through the social media.

He said that such messages requesting unsuspecting loan seekers and small business owners to apply for loans or investment supposedly facilitated by the bank were fraudulent.

“The attention of the CBN has again been drawn to fraudulent messages and videos, especially in the social media.

“They request unsuspecting loan seekers and owners of small-scale businesses to apply for loans or investment schemes purportedly facilitated by the bank,’’ Nwanisobi said.

He said that although the CBN has several development finance intervention programmes, it does not interact directly with prospective applicants.

“For the avoidance of doubts, there are clearly spelt out procedures for accessing CBN’s intervention funds which are disbursed through Participating Financial Institutions, Development Finance Institutions and Microfinance Banks.

“The bank does not facilitate investment schemes.

“Members of the public, particularly youths and owners of small-scale businesses, are therefore advised to disregard any video or text message proposing investment schemes or charging them fees on the pretext that their organisations are endorsed by the CBN,’’ Nwanisobi said.

He advised prospective applicants for CBN’s intervention schemes to approach their respective commercial banks, NIRSAL Microfinance Banks or branches of the apex bank nearest to them.

He urged the public to contact CBN hotline – 0700255226 or email – contactcbn@cbn.gov.ng for further clarifications.

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This is contained in the new guidelines for banks, other financial, and non-bank financial institutions released by the apex bank on Sunday in Abuja.

According to Mr Isaac Okorafor, the bank’s Director, Corporate Communications Department, the guidelines will take effect from Jan. 1, 2020.

Okorafor, while briefing newsmen said the step was in furtherance of the bank’s quest to make financial services more accessible and affordable to various stakeholders in the economy.

He explained that some major highlights of the new guidelines included the removal of Card Maintenance Fee (CAMF) on all cards linked to current accounts.

He said there would be a maximum of one Naira per mille for customer induced debit transactions to third parties and transfers or lodgments to the customers’ account in other banks on current accounts only.

Okorafor explained that it all involves reduction in the amount payable for cash withdrawals from other banks’ Automated Teller Machines as Remote-on-Us transactions.

The director said the reduction was from N65 to N35 after the third withdrawal within one month.

According to him, other reductions include Advance Payment Guarantee (APG), now pegged at maximum of one per cent of the APG value in the first year and 0.5 per cent for subsequent years on contingent liabilities.

On debit card charges, Okorafor said that the new guide stipulated that a one-off charge of N1,000 applied to the issuance of cards, irrespective of card type regular or premium.

He noted that the same one-off charge of N1,000 applied for the replacement of debit cards at the customer’s instance for lost or damaged cards.

According to Okorafor, upon expiry of existing cards, customers are to pay the same one-off charge of N1,000 irrespective of card type and no charge should be required for pre-paid card loading or unloading.

He explained that the current NIBSS Instant Payments (NIP) charges applied to use of Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), purchase with cash-back would attract a charge of N100 per N20,000 subject to cumulative N60,000 daily withdrawal.

The CBN spokesman noted that for cards linked to savings account, the maintenance fee had been reduced to a maximum of N50 per quarter from N50 per month amounting to only N200 per annum instead of N600.

The director hinted that there would be no more charges for reactivation or closure of accounts such as savings, current and domiciliary accounts while status enquiry at the request of the customer like confirmation letter, letter of non-indebtedness and reference letter would now attract a fee of N500 per request.

“On Current Account Maintenance Fee (CAMF), the guide expressly stated that this would be applicable only to current accounts in respect of customer-induced debit transactions to third parties and debit transfers and lodgments to the customer’s account in another bank.

“It emphasised that CAMF is not applicable to Savings Accounts.

“CBN carried out the review of the guide, which also prescribes charges permissible for Other Financial Institutions and non-bank financial institutions, in order to align with market developments.

“To guard against excess, unapproved or arbitrary charges by banks and other financial institutions, the guide stipulates a penalty of N2,000,000 per infraction or as may be determined by the CBN from time to time for financial institutions that breach any provision of the guide.

“The guide also emphasised that failure by any bank to comply with CBN’s directive in respect of any infraction shall attract a further penalty of N2,000,000 daily until the directive is complied with or as may be determined by the CBN from time to time.”

He said that the CBN, has directed banks to log every complaint received from their customers into the Consumer Complaints Management System (CCMS) in addition to generating a unique reference code for each complaint lodged, which must be given to the customer.

According to him, failure to log and provide the code to the customer will amount to a breach and is sanctionable with a penalty of N1,000,000 per breach.

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Buhari made the call after declaring open the 31st National Education Conference of the National Union of Textile Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN) in Abuja.

The President, represented by Prof. Segun Ajiboye, Registrar, Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria, also called on the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) to facilitate training of Textile Workers to sustain current efforts at improving local garments production in the country.

He noted that the administration was committed towards improving the industries in the country with the signing of the executive order 003.

According to him, the order mandates all “’procuring authorities to give preference to Nigerian companies and firms in the award of contracts, in line with the Public Procurement Act 2007.”

The President noted that the CBN had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Nigerian military and paramilitary outfits, as part of efforts to revive the Cotton, Textiles and Garment (CTG) sector in Nigeria.

“In recent time, the CBN has taken a number of commendable efforts to encourage patronage of local fabrics towards driving economic policy.

“After series of engagements, the CBN initiated the signing of an unprecedented MoU between the Service Chiefs, chief Executives of uniform services and textile garment manufacturers on enforcement of Executive Order 003 in support of local urgent procurement.

“I am glad to report to you that this is already yielding positive fruits.

“The existing 40,000 garment and textile workers must be trained and retrained , I will use this opportunity to call on the CBN to collaborate with your union and the ITF to come in and encourage the union to provide funds towards this end.

Buhari thanked the union for maintaining industrial peace and harmony, saying this was achieved through social dialogue and collective bargaining.

Mr Issa Aremu, General Secretary, NUTGTWN, commended the Federal Government for the closure of Nigeria’s land borders to end smuggling of goods into the country.

Aremu said the move was impressive, as it was aiding local production and consumption of goods.

According to him, garment industries have been boosted in the country, saying there is the need to sustain current efforts and support the Nigeria Customs Service to fight smuggling.

“We will like to commend the efforts of the Federal Government in the closure of its land borders, this has helped in total overhaul of textile and garment industries in the country.

“It is already on record that the textile industries are now making money, smugglers and importers have gone into hiding, border closure should not be permanent, but should be sustained for the mean time.”

Aremu said that in 31 years of the union’s existence, industrial peace and harmony had been sustained through the principles of collective bargaining.

He noted that the association had also signed 46 national agreements for development.

He said there was the need for the ITF to increase its intervention on worker’s training and skills development, saying this was necessary as the future of work was being threatened by technology.

The general secretary also advised the Federal Government to be wary of foreign investors, who use diverse schemes to swindle the country’s wealth, citing the over nine billion dollars PI and D gas contract scam.

NUTGTWN National President, Mr John Adaji, noted that the current administration had shown commitment to revamping the textile industry with the introduction of a comprehensive Cotton, Textile and Garment (CTG) Policy.

Adaji said that the policy, if implemented, would help to meet Federal Government’s target of creating 100 million jobs in ten years, adding that the union had the capacity to create no fewer than 2.5 million jobs.

The President commended the CBN’s development financing programme, which aided distribution of cotton seeds to farmers and the restructuring of Bank of Industry loans to surviving textile companies.

Mr Rueben Bamidele, from the UN Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), stated that the organisation was working to promote industrial development by strengthening institutions.

He pledged the commitment of the agency to strengthen partnership towards improving the union and supporting government’s goal of lifting its populace out of poverty.

The theme of the conference is, “Labour and Industry in the Next Level”.

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