The Bank of Industry (BoI) has flagged off the disbursement of N15,000 TraderMoni loans to beneficiaries who paid back their first tranche of N10,000 loans in fulfilment of its promise to do more for diligent and honest beneficiaries.
The bank confirmed the take off of the second phase in a statement, saying that the disbursement was in response to the encouraging level of repayments by the initial beneficiary under the scheme.
Under the first tranche of loans, the bank allowed for a flexible weekly loan repayment plan of N430 per week over six months after which beneficiaries that fulfilled their part of the deal would be further supported with additional loans.
According to the development finance institution, the beneficiaries had been paying back their BOI-GEEP loans through the PayDirect platform at commercial banks as well as by purchasing repayment scratch cards from TraderMoni agents deployed across the 2,260 markets/cluster locations nationwide.
It would be recalled that the Federal Government had in 2016, launched the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) as part of its efforts to improve MSMEs’ access to cheap credit without collateral.
The programme since inception, through its signature products — MarketMoni, FarmerMoni, and TraderMoni, has provided credit, ranging from N10,000 to N300,000 to over 1.5 million MSMEs owners.
One of the conditions set by government for accessing the loans provides that “if these beneficiaries repay their first loan as promised, they immediately qualify for the second level N15,000 loan.
“After repaying the second loan, these beneficiaries will qualify for a N20,000 loan, then N25,000 loan, and finally they graduate into the MarketMoni loan programme where they can get up to N100,000 in interest-free, collateral-free loan.
The BoI stated further: “This incentive-based model is working. Despite the fears of traditional lenders on giving loans to MSMEs – in part due to lack of formal identification, limited financial track record, and no collateral – TraderMoni continues to achieve success with loan repayments.”
