FILE PHOTO: Central Bank of Nigeria's logo is seen on the headquarters building in Abuja, Nigeria January 22, 2018. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde/File Photo - RC1E81C7FA80
CBN disburses N498m to promote healthcare sector
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said it has disbursed N498 million to projects under the healthcare sector.
This announcement which is contained in the communiqué of the Monetary Policy Committee said the disbursement was part of the bank’s effort at supporting a resilient healthcare sector.
The apex bank said that the two projects being assigned the total amount of N498.00 million are under the Healthcare Sector Intervention Facility (HSIF), a facility that has received a cumulative disbursement of N108.85 billion for 118 healthcare projects.
The communiqué stated, “As part of its effort to support the resilience of the healthcare sector, the Bank also disbursed ₦498.00 million to two (2) healthcare projects under the Healthcare Sector Intervention Facility (HSIF), bringing the cumulative disbursements to ₦108.85 billion for 118 projects, comprising of 31 pharmaceuticals, 82 hospital and 4 other services.”
In addition, the communiqué states that the CBN has received 224 applications, valued at ₦294.91 billion for real sector projects in different sectors of the economy, including healthcare. After applications have been processed, the first batch of beneficiaries under the intervention will be announced on 31st January 2022, with their names published in national dailies.
The Healthcare Sector Intervention Facility (HSIF) is a credit support for the healthcare sector by the Apex bank. The bank had introduced the scheme, which is a N100 billion credit support intervention for the sector as part of the measures to mitigate the effect of the Coronavirus pandemic on the economy.
Following the introduction of this intervention, the bank issued operational guidelines for credit support to the healthcare sector for indigenous pharmaceutical companies and healthcare practitioners that hope to build or expand their capacity.
The Scheme is expected to increase private and public investment in the healthcare sector, as well as facilitate improvements in the delivery of healthcare while reducing medical tourism to enhance foreign exchange conservation.
