Manufacturing industries in Nigeria have been given access to foreign exchange valued at over $660 million in the inter-bank market to source raw materials and spare parts for their industries.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s acting Director, Corporate Communications, Mr Isaac Okorafor, made this known in a statement early this week in Abuja.
According to him, the measure by the CBN is in line with its promise to ease foreign exchange pressure on manufacturing and agricultural businesses through forward sales under the new flexible forex regime.
He said that the sum sourced by the manufacturers was to facilitate the procurement of raw materials for agricultural, pharmaceutical, automobile, aviation, plant and machinery, power, telecommunications, and printing, among others.
The measure is coming after Erisco Foods Limited announced the closing down of its N4 billion tomato paste processing plant in Oregun, Lagos State.
The Company’s President, Mr Eric Umeofia, said it was closing down its 450,000 tonnes tomato plant, sacking 1,500 workers and moving its operations to China.
According to him, this is due to the refusal of CBN to allocate forex to the company for importation of raw materials.
