Emefiele: 28 companies benefitted in first cycle of ‘100 for 100’ policy

Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN), says 28 companies benefitted from the first cycle of the 100 for 100 policy on production and productivity (PPP).

Emefiele said this on Monday during the flag-off of the initiative in Abuja.

These companies are private companies that have a project to fund and were able to apply for as much as N5 billion under the scheme.

Emefiele said the selected companies met the requirements and went through rigorous screening.

He said that application for the next cycle of the 100 for 100 policy programme would kick off from February 1.

“Following due process on the application received, I am pleased to inform you that, unfortunately, only 28 companies with projects that have articulated proposals have been selected for funding. The projects valued at N23.20 billion comprises those within the manufacturing sector, agricultural and health sector, ” Emefiele said.

“These projects are to create over 20,000 direct and indirect jobs across all sectors of the economy as well as generate close to $125.8 billion foreign exchange. It is important to note that 5 of the projects are greenfield projects trying to explore the huge opportunities in key sectors of our economy.

“Next cycle for the submission of the 100 PPP starts from Feb 1 to April 30. I want investors to take advantage of the investment under the PPP.”

Emefiele further said that the programmes initiated by the government would go a long way to reduce reliance on importation, productivity and development.

“We are interested in increasing jobs, reducing reliance on imports and effectively growing our economy,” he said.

Emefiele assured current and prospective operators of the apex bank’s willingness to support the fast-tracking of development as well as smooth investment transactions.

“Our mission through these initiatives will be to prioritise companies who showcase verifiable progress in our import substitution and job creation drive. Soon we will unveil the new foreign exchange bidding that is market-driven, support companies that give priorities to our local products and job creation initiative in Nigeria,” Emefiele added.

“I’ll like to urge beneficiaries to judiciously use the funds for the purpose to which they have indicated as there are independent monitors and evaluators on the regular basis to see the progress of the projects.”