Nigerians Rejoice As FG Gives Interest Free Loans To 98,000 People

 The Nigerian Government has announced the conclusion of  plans to give interest-free loans to 98,000 beneficiaries of its Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme 2.0 nationwide.

The country's Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Minister, Ms. Sadiya Umar-Farouq, made this know in a statement by her Special Assistant on Media, Nneka Anibeze, in Abuja on Wednesday.

READ ALSO: I Dey Miss The Guy Di.e -- Tonto Dikeh Finally Admits She Misses Ex-Lover, Kpokpogiri

She said that this decision was reached after the final verification of Phase 1 applicants, who according to her qualified and were selected to benefit from small loans ranging from N50,000 to N300,000.

According to Sadiq, all the beneficiaries of GEEP 2.0 would receive sensitisation text messages in the coming days, where they would be informed of their qualification.

She noted that the money given to the beneficiaries of the empowerment programme is a loan and not a grant and the beneficiaries must repay it within nine months.

In her words:

“The GEEP 2.0 is a loan scheme designed by the Federal Government to provide financial inclusion and give credit access to the poor and vulnerable individuals including persons with disabilities.

“It also covers persons at the bottom of the economic pyramid, who are engaged in small scale commercial activities under its three flagship schemes.

“These three flagship schemes are MarketMoni, TraderMoni and FarmerMoni.

“Tradermoni targets uplifting under-privileged and marginalised youths aged between 18 and 40 years in Nigeria by providing them with loans of N50,000.

“MarketMoni targets underprivileged and marginalised women aged between 18 and 55 years like widows, divorcees among other vulnerable groups and they get interest-free loans of N50,000 payable within six to nine months.

“While FarmerMoni is for Nigerian farmers aged between 18 and 55 years in rural areas that operate in the agricultural space,’’ she explained.

According to the minister, these farmers were given loans of N300,000 for farm inputs, adding that the scheme had 12 months including three months moratorium and nine months repayment period.

“All qualified beneficiaries will soon receive their disbursement alerts. We wish to remind all qualified beneficiaries that this is a loan payable without interest.

“It is not a grant or a government windfall. It is a soft interest-free loan that must be paid back within nine months,’’ she said.