The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said that Produce, Add Value and Export (PAVE) was introduced to make Nigerians consume what they produce, add value to it, and even export the surplus.
The Governor, CBN, Mr Godwin Emefiele who disclosed this in Akure at a seminar organised by the apex bank for Finance Correspondents and Business editors said PAVE encourages backward integration for the local production of select items.
Insisting that the programme is an initiative akin to South-East Asia’s much referenced export-led industrialization policy which changed the economic fortunes of countries such as South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore, he said it is designed to be the key for fast-tracking a bucket of substitutes to Crude oil export.
Emefiele who was represented by Deputy Governor of the CBN, Edward Lametek Adamu said the establishment of InfraCorp by CBN in partnership with African Finance Corporation and the Nigerian Sovereign was based on apex bank conviction that the banking sector must pay attention to providing long-term finance for infrastructure development in the country.
He said InfraCorp would enable the use of mostly private capital to support infrastructure investment that will have a multiplier effect on growth across critical sectors. He pointed out that investment authority based on the apex bank within the CBN, its methods (especially in the management of financial system liquidity, FX market and development financing initiatives have been able to optimally balance the delicate objectives of price stability and real output growth .
He said in its desire to create jobs and diversify the economy away from crude oil, the CBN established numerous intervention programmes, such as Anchor Borrowers Programmes (ABP), Commercial Agricultural Credit Scheme (CACS), Creative Industry Financing Initiative (CIFI), MSMEDF, CBN Agribusiness, among others.
