The federal government has announced that it will resume the TraderMoni scheme, an interest-free loan programme for traders, in November. The scheme, which was launched in 2018 under the Government Enterprise Empowerment Programme (GEEP), has been on hold for some time.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu, disclosed this in an interview on television on Monday, October 9.
According to Edu, the scheme will target one big market per senatorial district, making a total of 109 markets across the country.
The traders will be captured in their shops and will receive N50,000 each to support their businesses. The money will be sent directly from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) account to the beneficiaries’ bank accounts, which will be created as they are being captured.
Edu said that the scheme is not based on party lines or any other interest, but on the need to empower the traders and boost their income. She added that the scheme is a one-off loan that does not attract any interest. However, those who repay the loan will qualify for another loan.
The minister also revealed that the conditional cash transfer policy of the government, which aims to provide cash assistance to poor and vulnerable households, will return later in the month.
She said that the government hopes to get the approval from President Bola Tinubu this week and launch the policy on October 17.
She said that the policy will cover 15 million households, which amounts to about 60 million individuals. She said that the government is currently verifying the data of the beneficiaries on the national social register to ensure that they are authentic and eligible. She said that the government is also capturing new beneficiaries who were left out of the register.
Edu also spoke about other programmes of the government, such as the N-Power job creation scheme, which targets five million youths between 18 and 40 years; the GEEP programme, which covers 1.5 million Nigerians, including market women, traders and farmers; and the Homegrown School Feeding programme, which provides nutritious meals to school children. She said that these programmes are designed to lift millions of Nigerians out of poverty and improve their well-being.
