Nigerian based Terror group Boko Haram is said to have gone into a form of microfinance by providing or promising capital and loans to young entrepreneurs and business owners in northeast Nigeria as a ploy to get them to join the group.
According to aid agency, Mercy Corps, Boko Haram is now exploiting the poverty facing most small business owners from butchers and beauticians to tailors, butchers and beauticians to tailors and traders to get them to accept the loans in exchange for joining Boko Haram.
According to the story first reported in Reuters, the borrowers are trapped into joining the terror group when it is obvious that they cannot pay up the loans.
“Boko Haram is tapping into the yearning of Nigerian youth to get ahead in an environment of massive inequality,”
“It is incredibly clever – either such loans breed loyalty or Boko Haram use mafia style tactics to trap and force young people to join them,” Mercy Corps peace building adviser Lisa Inks.
