An Executive Director at the Bank of Industry (BoI), Toyin Adeniji Wednesday restated the commitment of the bank to see that all willing Nigerians have access to small and medium enterprise (SME) loans irrespective of their status or level of education in the society.
Adetunji stated this at the unveiling of ‘Trader Moni’ initiative at Ojuwoye market in Lagos, disclosing that the programme which is activated nationwide would support two million Nigerians to grow their businesses successfully.
She noted that the goal of the scheme was to take financial inclusion down to the grassroots.
According to her, “the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration recognised the contribution of petty trading to economic development and identified the fact that some of them may not have what the commercial banks may require to grant loan, so he supports this initiative to help them grow their business.
“This ‘Trader Moni’ initiative is a mobile phone-driven. After your details have been captured by agent and sent to BoI system for validation, within 48 hours, you will get cash notification in your mobile wallet account. You can either transfer the cash to your bank account or cash it out in any mobile money agent around.
“At the beginning, you can access N10,000 and pay back N10,250 to qualified for N15,000. Once you can pay back N15,375, you are qualified for N20,000 loan, and when you pay back N21,000, you will get a loan of N50,000. All these stages have duration of six months interval to pay back.”
The BoI chief stated further that, “If you wish you can pay back before six month grace elapsed, you can access bigger loan. To pay back, just enter some of the banks we have partnership with such as Fidelity, Wema Bank, GTBank, UBA, Heritage Bank, Stanbic Bank, Sterling Bank, Union Bank and Jaiz Bank, and key in with an agent that you want pay BoI- Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) loan for PayDirect.”
Corroborating Adetunji’s view, the Chief Operating Officer, GEEP, Mr. Uzoma Nwagba, said the GEEP has three products Farmer Moni for farmers which avail them opportunity to access up to N300,000 loan each.
“We have ‘Market Moni’ which target market women, traders and artisans that are a bit bigger and more structured, and can get between N50,000 and N100,000. The whole initiative is available across the country,” he noted.
Nwagba urged beneficiaries to ensure they pay back the loan to avail others the opportunity to benefit from the programme.
“This initiative is aimed at expanding financial inclusion because we have over 23 million Nigerians who are financially excluded, as this administration aims to reach them so that they can grow their businesses,” he added
