Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
The Presidency has denied that beneficiaries of the Federal Government’s Trademoi N10,000 collateral free loan must present their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs), before they could qualify for the loan.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Office of the Vice President, Laolu Akande, while giving update on the scheme, said that there was no documentation of any kind required before one is qualified for the loan.
According to Akande, “The petty traders are not required to show PVC, or any document for that matter, they are only expected to show they are petty traders and this is why the enumeration is done in the markets and wherever the traders ply their trades.”
He assured that the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration would intensify its efforts to empower more Nigerians with the collateral free loans to petty traders across the country.
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The presidential media aide explained that that the credit scheme was part of the Social Investment Programme of the administration when it commenced in 2016.
Akande, while taking exceptions to insinuations that the beneficiaries of the loan specifically conceived in 2016 were placed on certain condition asked, “Must we then suspend the empowerment of the traders just because some people will insinuate motivations?
“The petty traders whose trades and lives are being positively impacted as they receive the N10,000 are telling a different story from those making political insinuations. And it is their stories that inspire us.
“Nigerians already know that the Buhari administration is one that is projecting the interests of the common man, Nigerians who are at the lower rungs, and this is not a new perception at all.”
Akande disclosed that the interest-free, loans which has now been launched in eight states including the FCT, would be extended to more states including Oyo, Cross River, and Kaduna states, this week.
He said the micro-credit scheme has been introduced in Lagos, Kano, Abia, Akwa Ibom, Katsina, Osun, Kogi states and the FCT.