- FG’s ‘MarketMoni’ Loans Attract 350,000 Beneficiaries
The Federal Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) ‘MarketMoni scheme has successfully reached over 350,000 micro enterprises in all 36 states of the country and the Federal Capital City.
This, according to a statement, was revealed during a Micro Small and Medium-scale Enterprises (MSME) clinic organised by the Executive Director of Bank of Industry (BoI), Mrs. Toyin Adeniji.
GEEP MarketMoni is a federal ggovernment’s Social Intervention Programme (SIP) that provides interest-free loans of N10,000 to N100,000 to microenterprises, the segments of society with the greatest difficulty accessing credit.
The scheme, which is executed by BoI, a parastatal of the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, directly impacts traders, market women, artisans, and farmers nationwide.
To assess the impact of the scheme, the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo met with a section of 12,000 beneficiaries from Kano State during the state’s edition of MSME Clinic recently. The Special Assistant to the Vice President on MSME, Tola Johnson, said: “The best thing that has happened to micro businesses in Nigeria is the GEEP MarketMoni programme. It dealt with their collateral challenge because all they need is their data, a bank account and Bank Verification Number (BVN).”
Johnson added that out of the 37million small businesses in Nigeria, 36.9 million are microenterprises.
“This informed the federal ggovernment’s attention to this space. Micro enterprises are responsible for almost 50 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product and 80 per cent of the workforce,” he added.
Also, Adeniji, revealed that under the GEEP MarketMoni scheme, the BoI had given out more than 350, 000 microcredit loans across the country.
“GEEP MarketMoni has given people who otherwise have no access to finance, money to finance their businesses. These micro enterprises are expanding their businesses, making more profit and employing more people”.
“Most of our beneficiaries are women, some of whom are widows and single mothers. We are improving the quality of their lives, their children’s lives, their health and even education. We are seeing very quantifiable impacts. No government has ever done this,” she added.