TraderMoni: Osinbajo Introduces Interest-free Loan To Lagos Petty Traders

• TraderMoni: Osinbajo Introduces Interest-free Loan To Lagos Petty Traders

TraderMoni, an initiative of the Federal Government (FG) and the Bank of Industry (BoI), was on Monday introduced in Lagos, by the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo.

The interest-free loan was introduced at the Oshodi, Bariga and Ketu markets in Lagos state.

Speaking at the event, the Vice President, said since the scheme was introduced it has helped over 800,000 traders across the nation, each of them received N10,000.

The scheme, according to the Vice President, has now been introduced in Thirty-Three (33) states and is expected to reach up to Two (2) million beneficiaries by the end of 2018.

“TraderMoni, which is part of the Federal Government’s Social Investment Programme, is designed to assist petty traders across the country expand their trade through the provision of collateral and interest-free loans from N10,000”, Professor Yemi Osinbajo said.

“Through TraderMoni scheme, the Muhammadu Buhari administration aims to take financial inclusion down to the grassroots, and uplift Nigerians at the bottom of the pyramid, considering the contribution of petty traders to economic development,” the Vice President added.

TraderMoni is an initiative set up to provide capital in form of a loan to petty traders, artisans and small-scale farmers nationwide.

The scheme, offers free-interest loans of N5,000 and 10,000 to petty traders; when they repay weekly within a period of six (6) months, they are given access to higher loans of N20,000 and N50,000.

It is worthy to note that under the Federal Government powered Social Investment Programme comes the TraderMoni and MarketMoni scheme which have severally been confused as same.

The TraderMoni is targeted to benefit petty traders, while the MarketMoni is aimed to benefit the medium-scale traders.

Also, while the TraderMoni starts at N5,000 and N10,000, the MarketMoni starts at N50,000.