TraderMoni: FG disburses N15bn interest-free loan

By Yinka Kolawole

THE federal government has so far disbursed more than N15 billion to
over 1.5 million petty traders under its TraderMoni loan initiative
nationwide.

TraderMoni is a N10,000 collateral-free loan initiative for petty traders
under the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programmes
(GEEP), one of the Social Investment Programmes (SIPs) of the Buhari
administration.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo launched the scheme at Ipata Market in
Ilorin, Kwara State capital, last weekend.
He noted that the interest-free loans are aimed empowering ordinary
Nigerians and helping to tackle poverty, while enabling those at the
bottom of the economic ladder who work the hardest do better.
Osinbajo stated: “TraderMoni is a very important aspect of our economic
policy. We believe that one of the ways to counter poverty and to enable
those who work the hardest, and these are the petty traders, to empower
them to enable them to be able to do better, we have to give them credit.”
Responding to questions on SOBI 101.9 FM Radio station in Ilorin, after
launching the scheme,
he further said: “Nobody else will give microcredit to the petty traders
because nobody is sure whether they will be able to pay or not. Only the
government can do such. That is why we have decided that we must give
micro credit to the petty traders.”
Noting that the petty traders are at the lowest in the rung of the economic
ladder, Osinbajo said, “it is important for us to do so and for now we are
giving microcredits to 2 million petty traders. We intend to increase that
as we go along. Now we give them N10,000, when they pay back, we give
them N15,000 and when they pay back also, we give them another
N20,000.”
The Vice President noted that the TraderMoni beneficiaries can graduate
to the MarketMoni scheme where they can access loans from N50,000 to
N350,000 or more. On sustainability he explained: “I believe that there is
enough money to be able to take care of the scheme, and the needs of the
people. We don’t steal public resources, so, yes, there will be enough
money for the scheme.”
He dismissed claim in some quarters that TraderMoni is political,
especially regarding the period of its implementation, noting that “there
is no wrong time to do the right thing.”
According to him, the microcredit scheme was duly approved by the
National Assembly.
“First of all, this a programme which was duly approved by the National
Assembly. We started this programme (GEEP) since 2016 and it has two
other schemes – Market Moni and Trader Moni.
“We’ve implemented it across the 36 states of the federation. I think there
is never a wrong time to do the right thing. We started this programme
almost 18 months ago. We had to wait until NASS approved money before
we went on with the programme.”