Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has tasked over 5,600 beneficiaries of a N295 million loan in Kogi State under the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) to repay the loan in due time.
The GEEP MarketMoni Alert, which is a component of the Federal Government’s social intervention programme, is aimed at helping micro enterprise operators in the country bridge the gap in access to affordable credit.
Speaking during the formal launch of the programme in Lokoja yesterday, the vice president stated that the programme was conceived to take care of the interest of the people at the base of the socio-economic pyramid across the country.
He urged the beneficiaries not to consider the loan as a national cake, but that which required repayment so that other people could benefit.
“We have a lot of market women, artisans, youths, even farmers who can’t access credit to build their businesses. We, therefore, need a more innovative way to provide credit to these groups of people,” the vice president said.
On the involvement of the Bank of Industry (BoI) in the scheme, Uzoma who represented the bank’s Executive Director, Micro Enterprise Directorate, Toyin Adeniji, said the Federal Government leveraged on its expertise and long years of working in the target sector of the economy.
He noted that since the programme commenced, the bank had been working diligently and professionally to deliver on this mandate across the states of the federation.
