By Yinka Kolawole
Industry stakeholders have expressed divergent views on the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) withdrawal from direct intervention financing of the manufacturing sector.
Director General of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Dr. Chinyere Almona, said CBN’s exit has left manufacturers heavily dependent on commercial banks that are not structured to provide long-term industrial financing.
According to her, withdrawing intervention financing without a credible replacement has pushed manufacturers into a credit market that is ill-suited to industrial development, while routing development finance through commercial banks has weakened the concessional benefits of such schemes, discouraged lending to small and medium-scale manufacturers and contributed to declining industrial credit.
Although optimistic that the Lagos State Industrial Policy and the National Industrial Policy could spur fresh investments, Almona stressed that implementation, not policy announcements, would restore investor confidence.
