FG To Increase TraderMoni From N10,000 To N50,000
The Federal Government has said the N10,000 TraderMoni grant will be increased to N50,000 under the National Social Investment Programmes.
Special Adviser to the President on National Social Investment Programmes, Nasir Mahmoud, revealed the development during a paper presentation on the NSIPs at the recently concluded two-day on ‘Sensitisation Workshop on Effective Media Reporting of Humanitarian Sector.’
In 2019, President Buhari said he will take the number of beneficiaries under Trader Moni, Market Moni and Farmer Moni schemes to 10 million from 2.3 million.
Mahmoud said about 37 million Nigerians are currently active in commercial activities which have made the roll-out of the TraderMoni, FarmerMoni and MarketMoni schemes of national interest.
He said, “For TraderMponi, it has not gone down the drain. I mentioned during my paper presentation that it is still one of the special intervention programmes through which we empower petty traders and market women.
“What happened was that what was done when it was under the last President was a pilot. One because it was when the election was approaching, and then a lot of things were opened up, but the only good thing we are left to do is to begin to plan how best to handle this kind of programme.
“We have to do some totaling after data collection, to know exactly who are the Traders; where they are, and what type of intervention they need? And then we are also looking at sustainability. It won’t make any difference to give somebody N10,000 as a one-off and then go away. We must find a way to do it, so that it will become sustainable, just like the GEEP.
“The GEEP is meant to give empowerment to small businesses, especially those that were affected by COVID-19. But we have to do it in such a way that when you take a loan and develop your business, a time comes when you pay that loan for other people because you can never go down at the same time.”
Also part of the NSIP under the N-Skill scheme, the FG is planning to empower 14 million Nigerians including out-of-school children and physically challenged, he revealed.
“On the N-Power backlog, I don’t think we still have that issue, we have sorted that out with the office of the Accountant General of the Federation and we have gone through a very tedious process and at the last count, we have paid up. Now we have moved to the Batch C of the N-Power,” he added.