Hoodlums
invaded the Mandate Market in Ilorin, Kwara State, today and scared away petty
traders and TraderMoni agents, disrupting the disbursement of money to
beneficiaries of the scheme.
As
early as 9am, the hoodlums, some of them wearing ‘PDP Atikulated T-shirts’, stormed
the Mandate Market, insisting that the TraderMoni scheme could not be
conducted, because the Senate President Bukola Saraki’s father donated the land
to the state government to build the market.
It was
not clear whether they were sent by anyone or whether they were mere party
zealots, working on their own.
According
to witnesses, including Bank of Industry (BOI) officials who were at the market
to supervise the enumeration and disbursement of the N10,000 collateral free
loans, the arrival of the mob at Mandate Market caused some uproar.
The
thugs also intimidated the petty traders who had lined up to participate in the
programme.
Many
of the traders were palpably annoyed and refused to leave the market. Calm was
restored with the intervention of the police.
At the
Ipata Market, where enumeration and disbursement of the TraderMoni loans were
also going on, market leaders reportedly rebuffed pressure from some officials
of the state, urging them to shun the enumerators. The programme went on
without incident.
Officials
of the Bank of Industry told newsmen that enumeration had been going on in the
two markets in Kwara State in the last few days, without incident until today.
Vice
President Yemi Osinbajo is expected in the markets on Friday December 7 .
TraderMoni,
which is part of the Federal Government’s Social Investment Programme (N-SIP)
under GEEP, is designed to assist petty traders across the country expand their
trade through the provision of collateral and interest-free loans from N10,000.
The
loans are repayable over a period of six months at which point the traders on
repayment will receive a fresh N15,000 loan, which rises to N20,000 when
repaid.
The
microcredit scheme, which has since been formally launched nationwide and the
FCT, is expected to reach two million petty traders by the end of the year.
