Plans are underway by the Federal government to disburse N200million loan to 80,000 women in eight states of the federation.

The Minister of Women Affairs, Senator Aisha Jummai Alhassan disclosed this in Gombe during a town hall meeting on the National Women Empowerment Fund and Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme.

She said that the programme is a pilot scheme in eight states of Adamawa, Yobe, Borno, Abia, Akwa-Ibom, Jigawa, Nasarawa and Osun.

Senator Alhassan said that the loan would be disbursed through cooperatives, local trade association and other communities based groups, adding that the loan is interest-free and no collateral required only administrative charge of 5 percent, which is to cover bank expenses for administering the fund.

She said that the payback period is six months and a weekly schedule of payment has been drawn up to ease recovery over a period of 24 weeks.