Raw produce exporters will no longer have access to foreign exchange (Forex) rebate, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said.
Rather than grant rebates to portfolio businessmen, the bank spoke of plans to grant facilities to farmers to expand their plantations.
CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele, who dropped the hint at the end of the Bankers’ Committee meeting in Abuja, said granting forex rebate to exporters of raw produce “has the capacity of creating inflation”.
Defending the decision, Emefiele noted that “because they see there’s going to be a rebate everybody runs to the bush to buy cocoa at inflated prices, we don’t want that”.
According to Emefiele, the CBN said its doors remained open to operators in the agriculture downstream sector to “come and take loans and say you want to expand your cocoa plantation, you want to expand your sesame plantation, you want to expand your cashew plantation and others.
Exporters of raw agricultural produce he said “will get the loan but that rebate we may not be able to look at that”.
Meanwhile, REPORTERS AT LARGE recently reported that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has revealed that it would stop the sale of foreign exchange to Deposit Money Banks by the end of the year.
According to the CBN Governor, banks must begin to source their forex from export proceeds, hence the need to support non-oil exporters in the country.
