Nigerian govt to extend micro-credit loan

As part of measures to tackle rising poverty rate in the country, the Federal Governemnt said it had concluded plans to extend its Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) scheme to two million small-scale enterprises in the country.

Speaking at a town hall meeting in Lagos on Wednesday as part of events to mark this year’s edition of Eid-el-Kabir celebrations, Vice President Yemi Osibanjo said the scheme, called TraderMoni, was part of government’s effort to support small businesses.

“The other thing we have done is Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme, a micro-credit scheme for market women and others. We are doing one now for petty traders that is called TraderMoni.

“We are going to do at least 100,000 in Lagos and two million across the country. The traders here in Bariga must benefit from it. We also have the one for people far bigger than that which is called GEEP.

“I want to emphasise that everything we are doing, our focus, first of all, is to ensure that people are taken out of poverty. Our country is very big; over 200 million people, with many young people coming out every day. Aside from that, we also want to ensure that anybody who is doing anything at all, who is trading, artisans, mechanics; we are able to support them,” he said.

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TraderMoni is one of the three micro-credit loan schemes under GEEP, one of the National Social Investment Programmes (NSIP) of the Federal Government.

Two weeks ago, the Federal Government announced that it had disbursed MarketMoni loans to 31,594 microenterprises in Lagos State through the Bank of Industry (BOI).

“The GEEP scheme includes loans in different categories called TraderMoni, MarketMoni, and FarmerMoni. In December 2016, disbursement commenced across the country, and as of today, there are over 350,000 beneficiaries across all 36 states of the nation including the FCT,” a statement from BOI read.

According to the statement, the interest-free loans do not require any collateral and are repayable within six months with a grace period of two weeks.

 

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