The Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo was on hand to interact with beneficiaries from the MarketMoni and TraderMoni schemes during the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) town hall meeting in Central Market, Birnin Kebbi on Thursday, 12th September 2019.
The Townhall meeting provided an opportunity for beneficiaries of MarketMoni and TraderMoni to give valuable feedback on how the collateral and interest free loans have successfully helped them to expand their businesses.
In Kebbi state, 21,703 small business owners across 670 market associations have received MarketMoni loans while 47,041 micro business owners across 25 markets have received TraderMoni loans. In Central Market, Birnin Kebbi, 7,201 traders have benefitted from the TraderMoni scheme.
Hajiya Amina Sulaiman, a MarketMoni beneficiary thanked the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo for the N50,000 loan she received under the MarketMoni scheme in 2018. She invested the money in her recharge card business and this enabled her to move from being a vendor to becoming a recharge card agent, allowing her to buy directly from the telecommunications company at a cheaper rate and expanding her sales from the cards to V2U and data. Within two months of receiving the loan, she was able to repay the entire N50,000 loan and N2,500 administrative charge at her bank. She concluded by urging her fellow traders to repay their loans. She confirmed receiving a text message asking her to register for the next level of the MarketMoni loan of N100,000 having successfully repaid the initial one. She promised to judiciously use the funds once received in diversifying her business promising to repay the money in order to continue to benefit from the scheme.
Hajiya Amina Ibrahim spoke about how she has been able to use the N10,000 TraderMoni loan in improving her business. She used the loan to procure various sewing materials to aid her cloth repair business. She commended the federal government for the funds even as she noted that the elderly in the community have been able to use the money in opening home kiosks selling provisions. This, she believes is a better way to keep them active even as they are able to support their families. She promised to keep repaying the loan through the newly introduced voucher cards (available in multiple denominations) to enable her receive the next level of N15,000 which will be used in the further expansion of her business.
Also in attendance was the Chairman, Kebbi Market Traders Association, Alhaji Umaru Dangura who expressed his delight with the progress in commercial activities being made as a result of the MarketMoni and TraderMoni programmes noting that the loans will go a long way in expanding the various trading activities.
Reacting to the warmth and generosity of the traders, Prof Osinbajo said that government remains committed to empowering and supporting micro businesses. He maintained that the TraderMoni loans were targeted at the petty traders and artisans and reminded them that upon successful repayment, they will receive increments of the loan ranging from N15,000 all the way up to N100,000. He also thanked the state governor, Atiku Bagudu who was in attendance for rendering assistance to all the traders in the state and for building a new central market in the capital city.
In his remarks, Governor Bagudu expressed gratitude to the Vice President for his continued commitment in promoting entrepreneurship.
He said, “Kebbi State is an entrepreneurial state with each of the four emirates having distinctive and unique entrepreneurial populace that have been in active entrepreneurship both within and outside Nigeria. Kebbi, both history and culture, is an entrepreneurial state, there is hardly any commercial centre in Nigeria that does not have somebody from the state.”
The governor maintained that his administration had provided funding support for some SMEs, fishermen, butchers and women associations to boost their businesses.
At the end of the Townhall meeting, the traders expressed their gratitude to the Vice President by gifting him with local produce in form of two big fishes and fifty bags of rice.
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