It was just a regular day – another business-as-usual one, for 28-year-old Suleiman Sanni, a basket seller in the popular Kasuwar Yankaba in Nasarawa LGA of Kano state, North West, Nigeria. Little did he know right there in the market, even without a formal bank account to his name, he’d become a beneficiary of a government micro loan to support his small business. That day he got registered and on the following day, Sanni received a non-collateral loan of N10,000 to support his small-scale business whose total capital at the time was estimated around N5,000.

Suleiman would need a formal bank account and collateral in order to access a loan from a regular commercial bank in any part of the country. His story is just one of over two million petty traders across the country who have become beneficiaries of the government scheme. This is the success story that GEEP has become today.

It was in 2017, when the President Buhari’s administration launched the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP), as one of the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) under the Office of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, and executed in partnership with the Bank of Industry. TraderMoni is perhaps the most popular of the three schemes under GEEP including MarketMoni and FarmerMoni, and has so far reached over two million petty traders and small business owners in Nigeria.

In a remarkably short period, GEEP’s impact has been felt across the country but even more significant is its impact in the North West, a geopolitical zone with relatively low access to financial inclusion. The ‘no-barrier’ access to the TraderMoni loan ensured that tens of thousands became beneficiaries of the government loan. All they needed were just a working mobile phone and a verifiable business.

In a media chat with journalists, the Executive Director, Micro Enterprises, Bank of Industry, Mrs. Toyin Adeniji, said, “Trader-Moni is a microcredit loan for petty traders designed to meet the need of the larger population of Nigerian micro-enterprises that do not meet the more stringent starting requirements of the bank verification number and bank accounts.

According to her, “Qualified petty traders start at N10, 000, they progress to N15, 000, N20, 000, N50, 000 and then N100, 000. And as they pay back the preceding amount, they automatically qualify for the next loan.”

The loan repayment period is 6 months but records have it that many have repaid their first loan before the expiration tenure.

A GEEP Activation team travelled round the zone in 2018 ensuring every state was reached. From Kano to Kaduna, to Sokoto, Zamfara, Kebbi and Jigawa, visiting local markets in each of the state to enumerate and disburse the loans to traders.

The stories and testimonials were largely the same for the beneficiaries of the loan – they have been given an opportunity to expand their business – and ultimately, enhance their living conditions. And for many of them, it was the first time benefiting directly from a government scheme of such.

For most traders interviewed, the ease of access to the loans, non-discrimination of beneficiaries and convenient repayment plans were major attractions to them in contrast to the many hurdles of getting commercial bank loans.

Aisha Umaru, a roadside trader in local foods like kulikuli and mai in Gusau Central Market and 22-year-old Aliyu Umar Kwaruru, who sells local groundnut in a wheelbarrow in Kebbi Central Market are grateful for this intervention. For them, it was a good stepping stone to gradually scale their petty businesses.

According to Suleiman Sanni mentioned earlier in this article, “I came into the market a bit late and saw the TraderMoni people registering small businesses, and I was privileged to be part of those registered. It is indeed a blessing and I am grateful because this money will in-crease my business capital a great deal. Rather than buying fifty baskets, I can now afford to buy a hundred.”

Read more:https://punchng.com/tradermoni-beneficiaries-in-the-north-west-share-testimonies/