Governor Babagana Umara Zulum over the weekend was in the Gwoza Local Government Area of Borno State for humanitarian and developmental activities, which began on Friday, February 5.
After passing the night in the town, Zulum on Saturday shared N150million as soft loans and grants to small and medium-scale traders.
From the funds, N100m was allocated to small and medium entrepreneurs living within Gwoza town, while N50m was allocated to similar traders in Fulka, Izge, and Limankara towns, all in Gwoza LGA.
Depending on the sizes of their businesses, the jobs they create, and the capacity to pay back what was loaned, six traders received N1m each, 38 traders received N500,000 each, 250 others received N250,000 each, 404 others received N100,000 each and another 732 traders got N30,000 each.
The Governor explained that the loan/grant with a refundable period of four years is meant to resuscitate businesses and livelihoods destroyed by the Boko Haram insurgents in the communities of Gwoza.
Zulum announced that any beneficiary that is able to repay 50% of his or her loans within record time, will enjoy a waiver of the balance of 50%, while those who deliberately fail to repay within the dateline will be made to repay 100% of what they received as loans and grants.
Meanwhile, 27,000 vulnerable residents of the Gwoza local government received a variety of food items during the Governor’s ongoing two-day humanitarian trip which started on Friday.
11,000 male residents received food during Saturday’s distribution, while 16,000 female residents are scheduled to receive similar food on Sunday.
Before embarking on his trip, Zulum had deployed dozens of trailers loaded with varieties of food items to Gwoza, for which he is directly supervising distribution.
