The Central Bank of Nigeria has said it had disbursed N1.452 trillion to 337 large real sector projects in agriculture, manufacturing, services, and mining under the Real Sector Support Facility as part of the effort to diversify the nation’s economic base.

The CBN, Director, Corporate Communications Department, Osita Nwanisobi, who disclosed this on Sunday, during “CBN Special Day” at the ongoing 33rd Enugu International Trade Fair, also noted that N948 billion was disbursed to 4,478,381 smallholder farmers under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme.

Nwanidobi stated that the programme was yielding the desired objective as the beneficiary farmers cultivated 5.2 million hectares of farmland, creating 12.6 million direct and indirect jobs across the country.

Reeling out other interventions the apex bank had taken to revive the economy and create access to credit, he said CBN had extended the interest rate of 5% across all its intervention loans to March, 2023.

He said “the recently launched Tertiary Institutions Entrepreneurship Scheme (TIES) is an innovative financing model that will create jobs, enhance the entrepreneurial ecosystem and support economic growth and development through Agribusiness, Creative Industry, Science & Technology and Information Technology/software development.

“The broad objective of the 100 for 100 Policy on Production and Productivity (PPP) is to boost production and productivity, necessary to transform and jumpstart the productive base of the Nigerian economy.

“It is also expected that the Initiative will reverse the nation’s over-reliance on imports, by creating an ecosystem that targets and supports the right companies and projects with potentials to immediately transform Nigeria’s productive base at every 100 days.”