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Osinbajo said the initiative is one of the laudable empowerment programmes for women and youths being implemented by the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs.
The vice president also activated the Federal Government’s intervention programmme tagged TraderMoni at the popular Watt Market, Calabar, where many traders were given N10,000 each to be paid back in six months.
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The collateral-free loan was made available by the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund in collaboration with the Bank of Industry.
An elated trader, Atim Ededem, said: “I am very happy to have registered and this is one of the most visible signs of government that we have seen.
I like the initiative but the problem is that so many people who are not traders in Watt Market are registering.
In future, government should go through our market unions and possibly double the money. On the whole, this is a very welcome development.”
Another trader, Joy Unasi, said: “It will go a long way in ameliorating our plight.
It is better than collecting money from conventional sources where the interest will make it discouraging so I really commend government for this.
I look forward to paying back before the deadline to access the N20,000 loan.”
Yet another trader, Godwin Ikpot, was elated with the scheme.
He said: “At first, I thought it is one of these 419 schemes and did not believe it until when the vice-president came to our market.
This is the first time in my life that I have seen the vice president, and any doubt I had about TraderMoni has been dashed.”
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