Published 2 hours ago on January 29, 2019 By Kingsley Alu
The Bank of Industry (BoI), has disclosed that under its Trader Moni scheme, it has recorded 1.2million new entrants into the formal financial system as new operators of bank accounts or mobile wallets . The bank said it has so far, disbursed loans totalling N12billion to the 1.2 million beneficiaries of the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme(GEEP).
Executive director , Micro Enterprises , Bank of Industry ( BoI) , Mrs Toyin Adeniji, at a briefing in Abuja, explained that since the launch of the GEEP programme in 2016, it has recorded major strides in areas of access to finance as today, 1.5million Nigerians had received capital that was hitherto unavailable to them before now, stressing that these loans cover 2,600 markets and clusters across the 36 states of the country and FCT with over 4000 agents on ground .
Commenting on loans repayment, she said the bank has set up a robust infrastructure to enable repayments and recovery of loans, adding that , “GEEP loans can be repaid by walking into commercial banks and paying. over the counter, paying at local agents of our aggregators or our mobile representatives and by purchasing of GEEP vouchers in your marketplace and recharging your loans account just like a telco recharge card.
Adeniyi however confirmed that the bank had also seen a high uptake in repayment since it commenced a push and provided a wide array of options for loans repayment. While further revealing that about 53 per cent of GEEP beneficiaries were women, while 46 per cent of other beneficiaries were below the age of 35,Adeniyi explained that the bank decided not to go through market leaders in the disbursement of the loans in order to ensure that anyone qualified got the loan and at the same time, remove layers of distortions and bureaucracies in the whole process
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