Trader Moni Beneficiaries Refuse To Pay Back Loans, Says It’s Their Share Of National Cake – FG

Beneficiaries of ‘Trader Moni‘ have refused to pay back the loans given to them by the Federal Government, insisting that it is their own share of ‘national cake’.

Kwara State Focal Person for the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP), Hajia Bashirah Abdulrazaq-Sanusi, stated this on Wednesday, while giving update on the programme initiated by the FG to reduce poverty in Nigeria.

Abdulrazaq-Sanusi said that about 10,000 people benefitted from “Trader Moni” programme in the state with over N1.3bn disbursed to them. But the beneficiaries were not willing to repay the loan.

“Poor masses are not ready to repay the loan after collection because of the attitude of Nigerians to anything from the government, thinking it is national cake.

“Also, those that disbursed the money do not have records of beneficiaries like phone numbers and addresses, thus, making it difficult to track them for repayment,” Abdulrazaq-Sanusi said.

She said that the programme was designed to provide soft loans to boost small scale businesses in the markets and was flagged off by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo in 2019.

Abdulrazaq-Sanusi further explained that the initiative is meant to support women with N10,000 as soft loans to be paid back, after which they would enjoy the next stage of N50,000.

KanyiDaily recalls that Atiku Abubakar had alleged that the Trader-Moni initiative introduced by President Muhammadu Buhari ahead of the 2019 general elections was a vote-buying scheme that lacked budgetary backing.