BoI targets two million traders under tradermoni scheme

Not less than a million traders have benefitted from the social intervention programme, tradermoni, launched under the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP).

The Executive Director, Bank of Industry (BOI), Toyin Adeniji, said the initiative was geared towards empowering traders to receive financial empowerment to grow their businesses.

“The government understands that these traders need money to grow their business. With this, a lot of them will be financially fulfilled and we are also trying to get them in the financial economy. Our target is two million beneficiaries and we are well on the way to achieve that,” she said.

Adeniji at a trader moni market tour with the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, pointed out that the scheme has been phenomenal where over one million traders across the country have been financially empowered.

In her words: “Today, we are here to create market awareness with the market beneficiaries who received N10,000 as a start; it is interest free; and very easy to access and once they pay back the N10,000, they are entitled to get a higher loan of N15,000. We have crossed the one million beneficiary mark and we are all over Nigeria.

“Every single state has tradermoni beneficiaries. With this scheme, most of the traders have been able to buy more goods to grow their businesses. We are also encouraged because people are already paying back already.”

She added that the tradermoni is an extension of the marketmoni launched by the federal government three years ago.

Also speaking at the event, Baba Oloja of Ketu Market, Taofeek Adeoye, commended the federal government for the trader moni programme, assuring that the traders would be given orientation on how best to manage and pay back the loans.

He urged the federal government to introduce more business-friendly schemes to support and grow small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the country.