FG To Establish Peoples’ Money, Entrepreneurship Banks – VP Osinbajo

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*Says Buhari administration committed to empowering the common man

As part of its efforts to improve the livelihoods of the common man and take majority of Nigerians out of poverty, the Federal Government is considering plans to establish two banks – the Peoples Money Bank and Entrepreneurship Bank – to provide credit facilities to petty traders and entrepreneurs in the country, according to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN.

Prof. Osinbajo who was at Bodija and Oje markets respectively in Ibadan, Oyo State, on Thursday, to launch the TraderMoni loan scheme disclosed that the two banks when established would be dedicated to providing credit facilities to those Nigerians at the bottom of the pyramid in commercial activities.

TraderMoni, which is part of the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) under the Social Investment Programme (SIP), 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.

Responding to questions from journalists after interacting with traders in the Oyo markets, the Vice President said, “As you know, the Social Investment Programme is wholly a federal government programme and it’s part of APC agenda, because our approach is to focus on the bottom of the pyramid, the man of the street is so much a part of government policy and that’s the way it’s going to be.

“We propose also, as we go along, to establish what is called the People’s Money Bank. This bank would be devoted to giving credit to Nigerians at the bottom of the pyramid. That’s one of the things that we intend to do as we go forward.

“There is also going to be Entrepreneurship Bank. But we think we must propose a full banking framework for this banking process; we are working at it we will get there.”

On the number of traders that have so far benefitted from the TraderMoni scheme, Prof. Osinbajo said the microcredit scheme aims to benefit two million traders in the first phase. The microcredit scheme has seen been launched in 33 states and the FCT.

The Vice President added, “You can imagine it’s dynamic. The whole idea is to ensure that government is able to give credits the bottom of the pyramid, the petty traders who usually no one want to give them credit because they are not sure whether they will pay back but they are the vast majority of the commercial people of Nigeria. So, if you look at the number of those who are engaged in trade activities these are the more significant percentage, unfortunately, they do not have access to credit, he emphasized.

Prof Osinbajo noted that the TraderMoni and MarketMoni schemes are two programmes which seek to address the large population that are involved in commercial activities but who do not have access to credit.