BoI unveils Trader Moni collateral-free loan for micro businesses

The Bank of Industry has unveiled a collateral-free loan package  called Trader Moni to help micro business owners and traders grow their trades.

Unveliling the product at Ojuwoye Market in Mushin, Lagos, Mrs.  Toyin Adeniji, Executive Director, Bank of Industry, said the bank will not relent until every Nigerian who is willing, has access to loan irrespective of their status or level of education. She said the program will support about two million Nigerians to grow their businesses.

She disclosed that the goal of the scheme was to take financial inclusion down to the grass root whereby pure water seller, bread seller, food seller, okada rider among others can access loan to expand their business without any collateral.

According to her “The President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration recognised the contribution of petty traders to economic development and identified the fact that some of them may not have what the commercial banks may require to grant loan, hence, his support for this initiative to help them grow their businesses.

“The ‘Trader Moni’ initiative is a mobile phone driven technology. After your details have been captured by the agent and sent to BoI system for validation, within 48 hours you will get cash notification in your mobile wallet account. You can either transfer the cash to your bank account or cash it out at any mobile money agent.

“For a starter, you can access N10,000 and pay back N10,250 to qualify for N15,000. Once you payback N15,375 you will qualify for N20,000 loan and when you pay back N21,000, you will get N50,000. All loan categories have payback duration of six months,” she said.

On his part, the Chief Operating Officer of Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme, (GEEP) Mr. Uzoma Nwagba, said that GEEP has three products – Farmer Moni for farmers with loan access of up to N300,000, Market Moni for traders and artisans that are a little bigger and structured gets loan access of N100,000 and Trader Moni of up to N50,000 loan accessibility.