CBN UPDATE EDITORIAL CREW Editor's Note I
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Central Bank of Nigeria ISSN No: 2695-2394 Vol. 2 No. 4 April 2020 CBN Moves to Cushion the Impact of COVID-19 Crisis INSIDE THIS EDITION: Beware of COVID-19 Cyber-attacks, Fraud CBN Warns N100bn Pharmaceutical Fund to Support Healthcare Sector CBN Lifts Temporary Suspension of Cheque Clearing Operations Remain Open While COVID-19 Lockdown Lasts - CBN CBN Resumes Dollar Sales for SMEs, School Fees Contents CBN UPDATE EDITORIAL CREW Editor's Note i Editor-in-Chief CBN Moves to Cushion the Impact of COVID-19 Crisis Isaac Okorafor 1 CBN Spearheads CACOVID to Managing Editor Support PTF on COVID-19 Crisis 4 Samuel Okogbue N100bn Pharmaceutical Fund to Editor Support Healthcare Sector 5 Innocent Edozie CBN, CACOVID Provide Food Intervention 6 Assistant Editor I Kerma Mshelia COVID-19: CBN Introduces Guidelines for N50bn Targeted Credit Facility 7 Assistant Editor II MPC Urges NASS to Pass Mohammed Haruna Revised National Budget 8 Staff Writers Operations Remain Open While B artholomew Mbaegbu Covid-19 Lockdown Lasts - CBN 9 Daba Olowodun Ruqayyah Mohammed CBN Resumes Dollar Sales Olusola Amadi for SMEs, School Fees 9 Louisa Okaria Beware of COVID-19 Fraud CBN Warns 10 Contributing Editors Isa Abdulmumin COVID-19: CBN Approves Loan Application Williams Kareem Guarantees by Organised Private Sector 11 Olalekan Ajayi COVID-19: Private Sector Ademola Bakare Relief Fund Hits N27.1bn 12 Emeele Inspects Isolation Centre in Lagos 13 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR No Fee Required to Access We welcome your contribution COVID-19 Loan Okorafor 14 and comments. Please forward them to the Editor via: [email protected] COVID-19: FG Set to Reopen the Economy 14 CBN SOCIAL MEDIA No Staff Retrenchment by Banks; CBN Reassures 15 Twitter: @cenbank Facebook:/cenbankng CBN Lifts Temporary Suspension of Cheque Clearing 15 Instagram: @centralbankng CBN Publishes Rule Book 16 CBN CONTACT CENTRE MFBs: Minimum Capital Requirement Deadline Extended 16 [email protected] 07002255226 FOREX: Emeele Assures Investors of Security 17 CONTACT DETAILS Corporate Communications Department, COVID-19 Exposed Nigeria's CBN Head Office: 6th Floor Wing “B” Economy to Triple Shocks Emeele 18 Plot 33, Tafawa Balewa Way, Central Business District, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) 19 P.M.B. 0187, Garki, Abuja. ISSN No: 2695-2394 Vol. 2 No. 4 April 2020 Editor's Note As a result of the lock down occasioned by COVID-19 global plague, members of the editorial crew retired to the safety of our various homes from where we to put together this April edition. We hope you are keeping safe and in good spirit. In this edition, We bring to readers a story on efforts of the CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emeele in mobilizing the Coalition of Private Sector Against COVID-19, otherwise known as CACOVID, to support the Presidential Task Force COVID-19 with some resources (nancial, equipment and other facilities) required to ght the deadly plague. This is followed by a news analysis, based on Governor Emeele's thought provoking treatise titled TURNING THE COVID-19 TRAGEDY INTO AN OPPORTUNITY FOR A NEW NIGERIA. It presents the Pandemic as an opportunity for policy makers to grow the domestic economy into self-sufciency in various sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, health, education etc. It is envisioned that this would help to ameliorate the impact of the pressures birthed by the corona virus. Mindful of the plight of the households and micro, small and medium Enterprises (MSMEs), there is a story on the introduction of CBN for N50bn Targeted Credit Facility stimulus package Also, a similar stimulus package of N100bn Healthcare Research and Development Grant is earmarked for pharmaceutical and other healthcare providers in Nigeria. As a fallout of the new COVID-19 Pandemic, a story points to the warning by the CBN on the need for the public to beware of the increasing incidence of cyber-attacks and fraud. We also bring to your reading pleasure, a story on the readiness of the CBN to make available foreign exchange to all deposit money banks for sale to SMEs and payment of school fees for oversea studies. We serve stories that show the private sector-led coalition beginning to yield some results. Interestingly, one of the stories revealed that relief fund from CACOVID has reached the N27bn mark. Another interesting story tells of the inspection of an Isolation Centre facility in Lagos Provided by CACOVID led by the CBN Governor, Mr. Emeele. These and other stories have been put together for your reading pleasure. Thank you once more for your interest and hope you keep to COVID-19 safety rules. Isaac Okorafor Editor -in- Chief CBNUPDATE is a monthly news publication of the Central Bank of Nigeria. Opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reect the views of the Banks Management. ISSN No: 2695-2394 Vol. 2 No. 4 April 2020 News Analysis CBN Moves to Cushion the Impact of COVID-19 Crisis By: Ademola Bakare Covid-19 Isolation Centre he year 2020 started on a brighter and funds were in quick response to the coronavirus prospective note for Nigeria with the pandemic, which has caused unprecedented Texpectation of increased economic disruptions in global supply chains, sharp drop in activities, arising from the CBN's sustained global crude oil prices, chaos in global stock and interventions in agriculture and Small and Medium nancial markets, lockdown of large swaths Enterprises (SMEs). Economic indices also attested movements of persons in many countries, to this until what was believed to be a localised including Nigeria. virus in a town, Wuhan, in China, took on the world, ravaging not only economies but with millions of It berthed here in Nigeria when the CBN was human casualties. Nigeria is battling to contain it, putting nal dots on the organisation of its second as no one expected its devastating destructive edition of 'Going for Growth 2.0'. (The rst edition capacity. Other viruses like SARS and Ebola were was held in Lagos in 2019.) It is a Think-tank not this destructive. It has no doubt brought stakeholder assemblage of practitioners in the unquantiable damage to world's harmony and private and public sectors, bureaucrats and economic life. technocrats, bankers and industrialists concerned about the economic wellbeing of Nigeria. In a series of interventions by the Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN) at the wake of the novel The stakeholder meeting was held at the head Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, the Bank ofce of the CBN and it coincided with the unveiled a succession of targeted facilities starting outbreak of the novel COVID-19 virus. The fear of with a N50billion credit facility, followed by every stakeholder was palpable knowing how another N100billion credit support intervention for fragile the economy is, and having just exited the health sector. The Bank's twin intervention economic recession and on the verge of getting its 1 ISSN No: 2695-2394 Vol. 2 No. 4 April 2020 groove back. However, the mono-product shocks required to weather the pandemic, he in economy of Nigeria further exposed its fragility sequence to its earlier held 'Going for Growth 1.0' and precarious situation, especially with the way held in Lagos last year, conveyed its second stanza advanced economies were crumbling, battling in expectation of likely economic disruption that how to salvage the ruins caused by the menace. may be arise with the virus outbreak. Thus, he The Nigeria situation is made worse as its major rallied a coalition of private sector operators, revenue source is hinged on oil proceeds for including industrialists, bankers and business sustenance. Previous economic diversication moguls, on the urgent need to jointly combat the efforts were only achieved on papers without commensurate commitment to achieve the emerging COVID-19 crisis in Nigeria, particularly programme. as the international crude oil prices were beginning to dip unprecedently in decades. The CBN Governor, Godwin Emeele shortly on assumption of ofce admonished the handlers of Countries around the world are individually and the economy to brace up for the diversication of frantically ghting for themselves and their the economy to agriculture and non-oil products as economies with different approaches peculiar to the future of oil as source of sustenance is bleak. their environment and needs. In this circumstance, Emeele became the lonely voice in this advocacy. Nigeria is not an exception. The challenge is being He was proved right when world oil prices dipped a mono-product economy, oil, dwindled scal in 2015/2016 and the economy slipped into buffers, weak infrastructure, poverty and recession. Concerted efforts were made through unemployment. Thus, challenge at hand is various monetary policy interventions to revive the everyone's problem that requires every hand on economy. He succeeded when hope seemed lost. the deck. Godwin Emeele, had said, The need for all Nigerians to play a role in this ght cannot be And ever since he had been on the frontline understated as we are quite literally in the ght of canvassing for economic diversication and in the our lives. I must highlight the fact that this is not just same vein frowning at the increasing public debt about bringing money. Your time, your services, without commensurate buffers. He was worried your products will all be helpful. about the unabating internal security crisis caused by militancy and insurgence, particularly in the Thus, from the foregoing, coupled with efforts food producing areas of the country and has being put in place, suitable to our peculiar needs in gravely affected economic growth, food security, combating the virus and immune the economy and rising ination. The Bank had also been from crisis, the CBN Governor constituted a concerned about the inadequate infrastructure in coalition, the Coalition of Private Sector Against the economy.