The TraderMoni scheme, other Government Enterprise and
Empowerment (GEEP) micro-credit products (MarketMoni and
FarmerMoni), a component of the Buhari administration’s Social
Investment Programme(SIP) are still very much in operation, the
Presidency has said.
Mr Laolu Akande, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and
Publicity to the President, Office of the Vice President, disclosed
this in a progress report on GEEP made available to newsmen on
Thursday in Abuja.
He said that contrary to speculations in some quarters, the
micro-credit schemes had not stopped, as 30,000 petty traders had
received TraderMoni loans after elections.
Akande said that with repayments, some of the initial
beneficiaries had started collecting second improved loans of N15,
000.
“So far, a target of 30,000 minimum beneficiaries per state has
been achieved in majority of the 36 states and FCT after the
national and state polls.
“What the implementing agency has been doing since the last
phase of disbursements is generating the balance of programme
funding while ramping up on the states with shortages.
“Consequently, disbursements have continued to happen in the
states; for instance, we have had over 28,000 disbursements across
10 states since after the elections.
“Our priority is ramping up these numbers in the balance of
states before we move to phase two of the programme after detailed
reviews and structural enhancements for larger scale.
“Under the Next Level agenda, TraderMoni loans will target 10
million petty traders, a significant ramp up from the initial
target of two million beneficiaries.
On the role of the Ministry for Industry, Trade and Investment
in the implementation of the scheme, Akande said that it was
actively involved in the project.
He said that the ministry was in fact, the over sighting
ministry of Bank of Industry (BOI), which was the deploying agency
as the Office of the Minister executed the GEEP programe via
BOI.
According to him, the governance structure of GEEP includes the
office of the Vice President (National Social Investment Office),
Ministry of Trade and Investment, and BOI.
Speaking on measures adopted to enhance repayments, the Senior
Special Assistant said that GEEP had pioneered innovative solutions
to drive repayment compliance.
“Working with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and the
Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS), we successfully
piloted the concept of the BVN as digital collateral; and we saw
repayment go up significantly on the MarketMoni and FarmerMoni
loans.
“For TraderMoni, beneficiaries can pay back at any commercial
bank in the country just like a NEPA or WAEC bill; all they need to
provide the bank teller with is their phone number.
“We also developed and successfully piloted scratch cards as a
repayment option for beneficiaries who stay kilometres away from
the nearest banks in their community.
“The cards are loaded the same way Telco recharge cards are
loaded, thus requiring no new learning curve.
“This improved repayment received compliance to the extent that
in January, the BOI began second level disbursements of N15,000 to
beneficiaries in Lagos, Borno, Ogun and Oyo states for traders who
had successfully paid back their first N10,000 loans.”
He said that GEEP’s vision in the long term, remained to empower
the more than 30 million MSMEs in Nigeria with interest-free,
collateral-free loans.
Akande said that GEEP programme, a component of the Buhari
administration’s SIP had since inception about two years ago,
impacted many lives, as well as improved living conditions.
He said it had expanded opportunities for ordinary Nigerians to
do petty trading as well as small and medium scale businesses.
“Under the TraderMoni scheme, an initial N10,000 loan is given
to petty traders and once they repay within six months, they can
receive a new N15,000 loan and when they repay, they can get
another N20,000 loan until they get as much as N100,000,’’ he
said.
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