By Ebere Obike
The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, says the RT200 Export Rebate Programme, has been of immense benefit to the country enabling the repatriation of several billions of dollars into the nation’s economy.
Governor of the CNN, Mr. Godwin Emefiele made this known at the third edition of the RT200 bi annual Export Summit in Lagos.
Emefiele who stated that through the programme, the sum of $1.7 billion was repatriated into the economy in the first three months of this year, promised that names of companies and individuals that benefited from the programme, will be published soon.
Mr Emefiele noted that of the $1.7 billion that was repatriated to the economy, about $790 million was sold at the Importer and Exporter window year-to-date.
Stating that the RT200 programme has made good progress in export proceed repatriation since its establishment in February 2022, Mr Emefiele attributed the current achievement to the increase of the programme increased by 40 percent from $3.0 billion in 2021 to $5.6 billion at the end of 2022.
He also noted that the momentum for 2023 was equally showing strong numbers and impressive prospects.”
Mr Emefiele, however expressed regret over the activities of some agents and shipping lines ,who he said have been conniving with exporters to take products out of the country without proper documentation.
“The CBN vowed to publish the names of those involved ,
adding that the apex bank has been patient with shipping lines as well as agents which it expects to do the right thing.
He noted that at an earlier meeting it had informed the shippers that “they will also be monitoring and if they find that they export without documentation we will fine them by placing their accounts on PND. We have so far not done anything like that, because we feel that our shipping lines will be responsible to do what is right but if we do not see the kind of cooperation that we expect, I will have to insist that we do what we need to do.” He said.
While responding to questions on transparency of the process of selecting beneficiaries, , Mr Emefiele said “they the bank would start advertising the amount and names of the companies that have benefited from the Rt200, since its inception.
“We want to assure you that the bank is committed to strengthening and expanding foreign exchange supply into the market. You all are important in this clarion call of expanding the supply of foreign exchange inflow into the economy. For exporters, flying the flag of Nigeria in the international market, the Bankers’ Committee and the CBN stand ready to partner with you to achieve your goals. You can benefit from the many financial programmes introduced by the CBN through your bank and as such grow your business exponentially.
“We are ready to break our backs for exporters to achieve this goal and that is the reason we said when we launched this programme that we have about N500 billion available for you as facilities to be able to do whatever you want to do to process your export materials. The disbursement of that facility is sub optimal.” Mr Emefiele said.
The Governor of Lagos state, Mr Babajide Sanwoolu noted that ,“The Central Bank of Nigeria was demonstrating serious commitments to the success of these initiatives through a range of incentives, aimed at encouraging increased activities in the non -oil export sector as well as repatriation of foreign exchange into the Nigerian economy.
It is also encouraging to note that this programme, in addition to several other initiatives by the Federal Government is yieding the desired results as shown by the recent reports of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council indicating that our non-oil exports grew by about 40 per cent n 2022 to $4.2 billion
It was held under the theme “RT200: Challenges and Prospects to Success is very instructive as it provides the opportunity for policymakers and other stakeholders in the non-oil sector to access the effectiveness of these policy vis-a-vis the expected outcome.
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