By Etuka Sunday
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said measures are in place to pay the N2.7 trillion the Federal Government is owing contractors so they can service or pay back their loans at the banks.
CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele gave the hint while addressing newsmen at the reconstituted Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting in Abuja.
Emefiele said, “CBN has been very clear about this, and the size of contractor ‘debt is N2.7trillion and because these debts are unpaid to the contractors, the contractors themselves are unable to service or pay back their loans at the banks and that is why we seized the opportunity of this communique to talk about it so that these debts can be paid.”
He said, “the central bank itself stands ready to accord some form of liquidity status to some of these debts and through that mechanism we believe the NPL will recede and then the banks can now continue to play their role which is to catalyze growth and support credit delivery to the Nigerian economy.”
The CBN said it would come up with mechanisms that would enable banks have credit facilities.
Emefiele said, “From time to time, the banking supervision department that primarily supervises or that has direct oversight on the operations of banks put in place policies that will encourage credit.
He said that MPC members advised federal government to restrain from domestic borrowing in order to free credit lines for private sector to borrow.
According to him, the body expressed concern over election expenses with 2019 general elections months away.
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