Below are excerpts of Vice President’s remarks during a visit Thursday afternoon at the palace of the Emir of Gwandu, Alhaji Muhammadu Bashar in Kebbi State.
I want to thank you very much for hosting us today, we are here for several things; the MSMEs, look at the new markets that have been rebuilt after the fire and for some of the schemes that have taken place. One of the very important schemes is what is called the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme, which has the TraderMoni and MarketMoni. TraderMoni is the scheme where we give petty traders, N10,000, and when they pay back, N15,000, then N20,000 and it goes on and on to N100,000.
The President’s desire for this programme is that every hard-working citizen of this country should be able to have some support from government, no matter how little their inventory.
Today, at the market, I passed a woman who was selling vegetables and I asked her how much her whole inventory was, the whole thing was N500. It is for such people, such petty traders that the TraderMoni N10,000 is meant, so that they can buy more.
The President has promised that by the grace of God, we are going to take 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in the next 10 years and I believe very strongly that we are going to achieve it, but we can only achieve it with the able support of the State Governments.
Laolu Akande
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity
Office of the Vice President