Nigeria’s Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo has disclosed that the present administration has so far provided interest-free loans totalling N15.183 billion.
According to Osinbajo, over 300,000 persons across Nigeria, have since benefited from the interest-free loans. Under the interest-free loans scheme, Osinbajo maintained that beneficiaries got between N50,000 and N350,000.
The Vice President made this known while speaking at the 9th Presidential Quarterly Business Forum held at the old Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
In his words:
“A total of N15.183 billion in interest-free loans ranging from N50,000 to N350,000 has been disbursed to more than 300,000 market women, traders, artisans and farmers across all 36 states of the country and the FCT. By the way, 56 per cent of the loans has gone to women.”
Nairametrics had reported that Osinbajo had taken the TraderMoni scheme to Utako market in Abuja. Excited traders cheered and hailed as the Vice President went from stall to stall, having one-on-one conversations with the sellers within the market.
The scheme, according to Osinbajo, is to empower petty traders, saying the Federal Government is willing to do more should Nigerians leverage on the initiative to boost the economy.
What Trader Moni initiative is all about
The soft loan scheme is aimed at funding micro businesses in the country. Trader Moni is meant to help very small scale traders to easily get loans without collateral in Nigeria for the purpose of expanding their small businesses.
Trader Moni enables artisans, street hawkers, and petty traders to have access to loan facilities from N10,000 in order to boost their businesses.
The initiative was launched under the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) in partnership with the Bank of Industry (BoI).
Unlike the existing GEEP Market Moni loan scheme, which targets market women, traders, artisans, and enterprising youths, TraderMoni is a micro-credit scheme to cater for ultra-micro enterprises.
The initiative which has started nationwide is bid to support 2 million Nigerians to grow their business by having access to loan irrespective of their status or level of education.
Since its launch, the initiative has covered Osun, Kano, Abia and Akwa Ibom States, Abuja, etc.
