Banks to rehabilitate National Arts Theatre with $200m

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, on Saturday, said the Bankers’ Committee has raised the amount it planned to spend to rehabilitate the National Arts Theatre from $100m to $200m.

He also assured that the CBN wiould not stop but continue to support the economy with foreign exchange intervention after 2022.

Emefiele disclosed this during a press conference at the end the of the two-day bankers retreat in Lagos.

Speaking on the National Arts Theatre funding, he said, “I must confess that when we started this project, we contemplated it would cost $100m to complete. But unfortunately, where we are on the dimensions, the scope of the project yesterday, we found out that it is almost going to last up to $200m.”

To boost the volume of export repatriation, he said there was need to support the exporters who needed the facility to be able to process their goods that could qualify for exports abroad.

To ensure this support, he added that the banks would be made to grant at least N500bn yearly to export oriented companies.

According to him, the banking sector realised that the interventions introduced to support the economy was realising result.

He said, “Realising the progress that had been made so far, the CBN will continue to support the market with foreign exchange as hard as it may be; while the banks will continue to ramp up their own source of non-oil export to earn FX through repatriation which they can use to fund the needs of their customers.”

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