With hopes of higher loan values, many beneficiaries of the TraderMoni N10,000 loan have completed their repayments just as many others have started the repayment process.
Access to Capital is one of the major challenges Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) face in Nigeria.
Historically, less than 1% of bank loans have gone to Nigeria’s SME sector. This is why the TraderMoni loans target petty traders and artisans at the base of the pyramid; the program aims to enable the growth of this sector by providing easy access to affordable credit and by making more petty traders and artisans financially included so they can access other financial products to help their businesses scale.
Speaking with one of the beneficiaries,Ogunnubi Folashade, a beverage seller in Iwo market – Osun state, attested to how easy the repayment process was. In her words,“It was easy for me to pay back the loan, I met with one of the TraderMoni agents who sold the repayment scratch card to me. I loaded it just the same way I load airtime on my phone and that was how I repaid my entire loan”. She is one of several people who have paid back their loans in anticipation of the N15,000 disbursements. She expressed her intentions to use the next loan to continue to grow her business citing how the first was very helpful. “I was able to increase my stock by purchasing the goods in larger quantities and reduced wholesale prices” she said.
Mrs Folashade stated emphatically that the loan has helped many of her counterparts in petty trade. She expressed her confidence in beneficiaries’ willingness to pay back as every one of them anticipated the change in level they can experience with increasing credit worthiness and access to greater financial support.
Another beneficiary, Adamu Usman, a fish trader in Sabon GariJanguza market, Kano State also confirmed the ease of the repayment process. For him, repayment represents the opportunity to grow his business, and possibly expand into other goods.
The Tradermoni loans graduate from N10,000 to N15,000, N20,000, N50,000 and N100,000. Beneficiaries automatically qualify for the next tranche as they back the preceding loan amount and to facilitate easy repayment, the Bank of Industry has made available a plethora of repayment options: one of which is to repay into any commercial bank in the country; all they have to do is walk into any bank and inform the bank of their intent to pay their “BOI-GEEP” loan on PayDirect. Another option is to purchase repayment scratch cards readily available with the TraderMoni agents deployed to the 2260markets currently covered. These cards are currently available in N430, being the estimated weekly repayment proposed for the first N10,000 loans. However, sources at the Bank of Industry confirm that the cards will also be rolled out for the repayment of MarketMoni loans.
MarketMoni is the second of the three GEEP loan products. It is targeted at more established traders and, as with all GEEP products, provides interest free, collateral free loans to traders. However, unlike TraderMoni loans where bank accounts are not required as a criteria for eligibility, MarketMoni beneficiaries must provide their BVN to be considered for the loan facility. The BVN serves as a digital collateral to drive repayments compliance. MarketMoni loans start at 50,000 and go up to 300,000. As beneficiaries pay back the preceding value, they immediately qualify for the next.
Beneficiaries are happy at the fact that the repayment process has been made so easy through the purchase of a scratch cards. As such, they do not need to go extra miles and spend longer hours on queues at the bank, all that is needed can be reached within their immediate market community, and in some markets, through the same agents that registered them for the loan.
To encourage more repayments and just as designed, our sources at the Bank of Industry (BOI) confirm that the Bank is set to begin disbursing the second tranche of the loan to qualified beneficiaries. This is great news for those who have paid back, and for many others who are on the repayment journey.
GEEP, through its loan products, is proving to be a workable model for expanding financial inclusion, and for boosting the MSME sector with affordable credit. (Business Day)
