CBN Receives Eight Million COVID-19 Facility Application, Spends Over N300bn

CENTRAL Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said it has gotten over eight million applications from Nigerians and spent over N300 billion for its COVID-19 Targeted Credit Facility (TCF) to help homes and businesses.

Director, Corporate Communications Department, Mr Osita Nwanisiobi, disclosed this while speaking with journalists in Enugu during a one-day interactive enlightenment programme with organised labour and civil society groups on the five-year policy thrust of the CBN.

Nwanisiobi, said CBN will not stop working because TCF had helped Nigerians exit recession and post a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of 5.01%.

He added that over 600,000 applicants had benefited from various COVID-19 intervention schemes of the bank.

Nwanisiobi condemned 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.

“We started with about N50bn. We moved to N100bn and 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.”

Nwanisiobi revealed that the programme was to educate the labour leaders who were critical stakeholders in the CBN policies, interventions, programmes and initiatives.