Adewale Sanyaolu
The Bank of Industry (BoI) has unveiled a collateral-free loan package, ‘Trader Moni’, to help about two million businesses grow their trade.
The Executive Director, BoI, Toyin Adeniji, at the unveiling of ‘Trader Moni’ at Ojuwoye Market in Mushin, Lagos, yesterday said the bank will not relent until every Nigerian who is willing, has access to loan irrespective of their status or level of education.
Adeniji said the programme, which has now been activated nationwide will support two million Nigerians to grow their businesses.
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She disclosed that the goal of the scheme was to take financial inclusion down to the grassroots where pure water, bread, food sellers and Okada rider, among others, can access loan to expand their businesses without any form of security.
“The President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration recognised the contribution of petty traders to economic development and identified the fact that some of them may not have what the commercial banks may require to grant loan, hence, his support for this initiative to help them grow their businesses.
“The ‘Trader Moni’ initiative is a mobile phone driven technology. After your details have been captured by the 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 at any mobile money agent.
“For a starter, you can access N10,000 and pay back N10,250 to qualify for N15,000. Once you payback N15,375 you will qualify for N20,000 loan and when you pay back N21,000, you will get N50,000. All loan categories have payback duration of six months,” she said.
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Corroborating Adeniji, Chief Operating Officer, Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme, GEEP, Mr. Uzoma Nwagba, said that GEEP has three products – Farmer Moni for farmers with loan access of up to N300,000, Market Moni for traders and artisans that are a little bigger and structured gets loan access of N100,000 and Trader Moni of up to N50,000 loan accessibility.
Nwagba urged beneficiaries to ensure they pay back to avail others the opportunity of benefitting same, adding that all these initiatives were aimed at expanding financial inclusion.
