The Central Bank of Nigeria revealed that it has disbursed N400 billion and received over 8 million applications from Nigerians for its Covid-19 Targeted Credit Facility (TCF) to help households and businesses that have been negatively impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.
The TCF is part of the Federal Government’s various intervention programmes aimed at stimulating the economy, preserving jobs and making sure that the country does not slip back into recession due to the pandemic.
This disclosure was made by the CBN’s Director, Corporate Communications Department, Mr Osita Nwanisiob, while fielding questions from journalists in Enugu during a one-day interactive enlightenment session with organised labour and civil society groups on the five-year policy thrust of the CBN.
Nwanisiobi said that more than 600,000 applicants had benefited from the various Covid-19-induced interventions so far, faulting claims that residents of Enugu State didn’t receive the CBN credit facilities.
He said, “That would not be true. If you tell me that there are people who still need Covid-19 facility and who have not received it; honestly, I will agree with you.
“We started with about N50bn. We moved to N100bn, to N300bn; today; we are talking about N400bn. Now, the number of applications that we have is over eight million applications and we have done over 600,000.
“Now, will people complain that they haven’t received it? The answer is yes; you see the number and then you see what we are doing.
“The reality is that we are not resting on our oars. The governor is actually very passionate because he has also seen that what we have done in this regard also help Nigerians exit recession and to post the kind of GDP that we have posted and so he is poised to do more.”
Nwanisiobi noted that the major reason for the targeted stakeholders’ interactive session was to educate the labour leaders who were critical stakeholders in the CBN policies, interventions, programmes, and initiatives.