TraderMoni still in operation – Presidency

The TraderMoni scheme, other Government Enterprise and Empowerment micro-credit products (MarketMoni and FarmerMoni), a component of the Buhari administration’s Social Investment Programme 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 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.