By Omodele Adigun

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced that, in continuation of its resolve to ease foreign exchange pressure on the strategics actors of the economy, it had granted access to about 7,792 requests for $867 million in October.

Statistics obtained from the apex bank’s website show that the raw materials sector received the lion share of about $355.75million or 40.99 per cent of the total value of forex utilisation for the month at $867.8 million..

The data also show that other end users like the manufacturing and petroleum industries got access to about $91.28 million and $150.82 million respectively.

Companies and other interests in the agricultural sector got access to about $13,72 million for the period, while entities in the aviation sector received about $10.31million for the same period. Finished goods and others got allotments of about $43.84 million and $10.78 million respectively, while invisibles, comprising school fees, students’ upkeep and medicals, among others, received $191.34 million or 22.05 per cent of the total amount. Confirming the figures, the Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department of CBN, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, said the release of the figures underscored the transparency of the apex bank in foreign exchange management.

According to him, CBN remained committed to its pledge to ease the foreign exchange pressure on manufacturing and agricultural sectors through forward sales under the new flexible foreign exchange regime.

Recall that in September, manufacturing industries got access to over $660 million in the inter-bank market to source raw materials and spare parts for their industries.

Releasing the names of the 1,342 companies that accessed fund in September, CBN stated that 23 banks and International Money Transfer Organisations (IMTOs) disbursed over $660.17million during the month to import raw materials, plants and machinery.

The CBN recently said that manufacturing industries were given access to over $660 million in the inter-bank market to source raw materials and spare parts.

Details indicated 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.