Who is Behind the MarketMoni & TraderMoni Scheme?

Last Updated on October 20, 2019 by

What is MarketMoni, TraderMoni?

MarketMoni & TraderMoni are loan programmes of the Federal Government, created specifically for petty traders and artisans across Nigeria. They are a part of the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) scheme of the Federal Government, being executed by the Bank of Industry.

With TraderMoni, you can receive interest-free loans starting from N10,000 and growing all the way to N100,000 as you pay back. You get N10,000 as the first loan. When you pay back the first loan, you immediately qualify for a second loan of N15,000. After payback of the second loan, you qualify for a N20,000 loan, and then N50,000, and then N100,000. With TraderMoni, the Federal Government wants to change your level by providing continuous loans for your petty business, making each loan bigger to enable you to grow.

Unlike TraderMoni, MarketMoni starts with N50, 000 and is designed for medium scale entrepreneurs consisting of market women, artisans, and youth/market associations. A Bank Verification Number (BVN) is required and the loans are deposited in beneficiaries’ bank accounts. Through this scheme, the government claims it has extended interest-free loans to 350,000 Nigerians.

TraderMoni, the largest Social Investment Programme within the country was recently awarded as the most impactful money Inclusion program in africa. GEEP which is the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Program commenced in 2016 and has empowered over 2 million micro-enterprises with collateral-free, interest-free loans to grow their businesses, making it the most important government-led microcredit program globally. The overwhelming majority of these micro-enterprises are petty traders, merchants, enterprising youth, and agricultural employees in over 1600 clusters and markets across all thirty six states of nigeria, as well as Federal Capital.

Who is behind the TraderMoni & MarketMoni Scheme?

As huge as the impact of these projects have been on its countless beneficiaries, there remains an unpublicized accomplishment they hav achieved. The Nigerian Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) is one of the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) under the Office of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. In it, non-collateral soft loans are given to traders, artisans and farmers for purposes of enhancing their living standards by expanding their businesses through funding by Bank of Industry (BoI). Under GEEP are three sub-programmes: Tradermoni, MarketMoni and FarmerMoni, where zero collateral loans, ranging from N10, 000 to N300, 000 are given to MSMEs operators, as part of poverty eradication efforts.

Of the three programmes, the one that has drawn the most attention is Tradermoni, which saw Osinbajo at the peak of political campaigns for the last Presidential election, going from one market to the other across the country, personally handing out loans to traders, prompting opposition parties to describe the scheme as a vote-buying method of the ruling All Prgressives Congress (APC).

The TraderMoni & MarketMoni scheme is one of the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) micro-credit products. The Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment is actively involved in these projects. It is in fact the over-sighting Ministry of BOI. The Minister’s office executes GEEP via BoI. Hence, the Chief Operating Officer of GEEP, Uzoma Nwagba, is a staff of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment.

The technology used within the four distinct loan acquisition processes (Enumeration, Verification, Disbursement and Repayment) are all dispensed by technology solutions absolutely designed and developed by core Nigerian tech start-ups. The success of the program is proof of the effectiveness of using native technology to drive widespread impact.

With 7,102,016 lines of code written across all solutions and sixteen.6 terabytes of knowledge and records for creating educated selections on the eligibility of all beneficiaries, GEEP isn’t simply clearly more than an economic program however a technological exploit that reveals the inert capability of Nigerians to form native solutions to resolve our most pressing problems.

The enumeration records are collated through GDM group enumerators on the sector and a data collection solution software package referred to as Mobile Forms, a product of CrowdForce, a Nigerian company using mobile technology and therefore the largest agent network to assist businesses, banks, digital wallets, transnational organizations, NGOs and government agencies reach the underserved population within the rising market. different digital information like facial capture, fingerprint capture, and security verification technologies were developed by RIBY another domestically closely-held and operated company. RIBY could be a leading digital platform for cooperatives and trade teams in Nigeria.

Other native solutions deployed through the program are the Eyowo and Yoruba mobile wallet platforms used for disbursement of funds to over 2 million beneficiaries, the Bank of trade Command Centre, the call center (EBIS) and reimbursement of loans via USSD recharge codes.

Having a median age of 26.3 years and a employees variety of 4,764, together with field agents and ad-hoc employees, the national GEEP team is the youngest team of specialists absorbing such magnitude of project in continent.