Vice President Osinbajo has refuted claims that have been going around that the Federal Government Empowerment Scheme known as Trader Moni has been suspended, saying such reports are untrue and should be ignored.
In a statement released by the Senior Special Assistant to Vice President Osinbajo on Media and Publicity, Mr Laolu Akande, said the empowerment scheme is still on course, and more people have been receiving their loans, while those that have previously received the N10,000 token are paying back so to receive the N15,000 loan as stipulated by the Bank of Industry backed scheme.
The report claimed that Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo has halted his visits to markets nationwide to promote the Trader Moni scheme, alleging that it has all been planned as vote buying from the All Progressives Congress (APC) led Federal Government.
Mr Laolu refuting the allegation said:
“Trader Moni, the interest/collateral free N10,000 loans for petty traders is on course. Ignore reports to the contrary. In fact, since after the elections, about 30,000 new loans have been given across ten states.
Also since traders have started repaying, N15,000 disbursements have also commenced to petty traders in Lagos, Borno, Ogun & Oyo States.
Recall that with Trader Moni once the initial N10,000 is repaid, the trader gets another N15,000, and then N20,000 up until about N100,000 loan.
The Buhari administration is committed to this scheme and in the Next Level Implementation ten million Nigerian petty traders would benefit, ie a significant increase from the initially planned two million beneficiaries. And this is for all the 36 States and the FCT.” he said.