Paul Orude, Bauchi
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will, on Tuesday, visit Bauchi State to officially launch the Federal Government’s Social Investment programme, TraderMoni.
The TraderMoni is a scheme introduced by the Federal Government which will see traders receive N10, 000 soft loans to boost their trades.
Briefing journalists at a press conference at the NUJ Secretariat, Bauchi, on Monday, ahead of the Vice President’s visit, his Senior Technical Adviser on Communications, Dr. Ebi Awosika, disclosed that the Federal Government has introduced various enterprise and empowerment programmes, some of which consist of TraderMoni, MarketMoni and FarmerMoni.
She said the TraderMoni is the best of these programmes because it is for the traders nobody can help and “it is for the traders that tries to get money from somebody and the interest they charge them will make
them slaves to the person.”
Awosika explained that TraderMoni gives N10, 000 to a trader to pay back within six months after which they can be given another N15, 000 and will be reviewed upwards periodically pointing out that no
collateral is needed for traders to access.
According to her, MarketMoni is a programme for market, traders and artisans who are trying to move their business forward economically but have a hard time getting a loan from the bank, “So the Federal Government is making it possible for them to get a loan that has no collateral, no interest which they can pay back over time.”
The FarmerMoni, she further informed, is specifically for farmers who belong to a farmers’ association who can get up to N100, 000 loan.
The Technical Adviser said so far, 500, 000 graduates across the country have been engaged under the N-Power Scheme and 20, 000 non-graduates in a bid to achieve the target or reaching 100, 000 before the end of the year.
“Bauchi State has over 12, 000 graduates that are employed through the N-Power programme out of which over 3, 000 of them are in N-Agro, over 7, 000 in N-Teach sent to teach in public schools. We have almost 1, 500 graduates employed in the N-Health and 63 in N-Tax.”
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She said that based on the concerns that the participants have had, particularly for those that joined in 2018, since the initial N-Power was to last for two years is what happens to them, the Federal Government, last week, launched the N-Power Enhance which will allow the N-Power participants continue indefinitely until they get another job or move on to another level.
Awosika said that the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme has been a success because the initial target of the programme was to feed five million school children across the country but 9.3 million children are being fed daily.
She said: “In Bauchi state, we are feeding 650, 000 school children every day. We 8, 000 cooks employed in the state alone in this programme. In fact, if you look at the Bauchi Meat Factory, 93 cattle per week are being processed to feed the children not just in Bauchi but across the state.”
She added that “When you look at the value chain, you can see how it is supporting the variety of businesses, the transporters that are transporting the food, the farmers, when you think about 9.3 million eggs, you need at least 2, 000 farms nationally, each with at least 2, 000 chickens laying about 3 eggs daily.”
The Special Adviser to the Vice President on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Tola Johnson, said that the Federal Government in 2017, launched the MSME Clinic in Abia State and so far, 20 states have been reached.
According to him, Bauchi State, which is the 21st state, is very important and dear to the President and the Vice President and it has become imperative that this programme is launched in the state before the end of the year.
“This is the first state where we will be launching national MSME Clinic and the one-stop-shop. The Vice President and the Governor will go and see anybody that is doing business and look at them and ask them what issues they have with their business.”
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He said for all business men and women who have challenges like NAFDAC registration, lack of equipment, exorbitant charges, registration challenges, the Vice President will give directives to the government agencies concerned to address them immediately depending on what those issues are.
He said that business owners will have the opportunity, between October 1 and December 31, 2018, to register their businesses under the MSME Clinic at N5, 000 so as to encourage them formalize their
businesses.
The Vice President while in Bauchi, according to the aide, will also launch the North-East one-stop-shop with headquarters in the state.