The Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) says it has disbursed over N15 billion to select exporters in the South West of the country to enhance their export activities.
The Executive Director, Business Development at NEXIM, Stella Okotete, made the disclosure on the sideline of the facility tour of some of the recipients of the funds in Lagos.
According to her, the disbursement was to let everyone see that non-oil export is growing and NEXIM is meeting its mandate of increasing the contributions of non-oil to the Gross Domestic Product of Nigeria.
Okotete, however, lamented the state of Apapa road, noting that “Apapa road is militating against the progress in the non-oil export. The number of trucks on the road is increasing the turnaround time from 90 days to 180 days, thereby reducing revenue contribution from that sector.
She said, “We have an office in Calabar and we expect that we should reduce the traffic of everything coming to Lagos port.”
Speaking on the need to increase the bank’s intervention from the average of N1.5 billion disbursed, Okotete said, “Because they are new on our books, we wanted to see capacity and coming here today, we have seen that they have the capacity and they will get more.