The Central Bank of Nigeria has revealed that it disbursed a total of N400 billion to about 600,000 beneficiaries of its COVID-19 Targeted Credit Facility, in a bid to help households and businesses. The beneficiaries were drawn from a pool of 8 million applicants during the period under review.
This was revealed by the Director of Corporate Communications Department in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Osita Nwanisiobi, while fielding questions from journalists in Enugu during a one-day interactive enlightenment session with organized labour and civil society groups on the five-year policy thrust of the CBN.
Nwanisiobi emphasized that the TCF scheme had played a vital role in helping Nigerians and Nigeria exit recession, as evident by the current Gross Domestic Product growth rate of 5.01 per cent. In addition, he promised that the apex bank (CBN) would not rest on its oars in empowering Nigerians to greatness.
Speaking further, he faulted claims that residents of Enugu State didn’t receive the CBN credit facilities. He said: “That would not be true. If you tell me that there are people who still need COVID-19 facility and who have not received it; honestly, I will agree with you.
READ: How to Apply for CBN COVID-19 Loan – Targeted Credit Facility for Households and SME’s (2021)
He further added that: “We started with about N50bn. We moved to N100bn, to N300bn; today; we are talking about N400bn. Now, the number of applications that we have is over eight million applications and we have done over 600,000.
“Now, will people complain that they haven’t received it? The answer is yes; you see the number and then you see what we are doing.
“The reality is that we are not resting on our oars. The governor is actually very passionate because he has also seen that what we have done in this regard also help Nigerians exit recession and to post the kind of GDP that we have posted and so he is poised to do more.”
