The federal government said it had restructured the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) and that no fewer than 1 million people will benefit from the programme.
This, the government said, is part of efforts to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty.
Minister of humanitarian affairs, disaster management and social development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, who made this known on Tuesday, when she inaugurated the programme in Abuja, said the programme is one of the components of the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP) designed to end poverty in many ways.
She explained that GEEP now targets skilled populations that have always been left out on credit delivery programmes by providing soft and affordable loans to finance their businesses.
“The GEEP is innovatively targeted and delivered under three unique products – the TraderMoni for marginalised youths, The MarketMoni targets vulnerable women, and the FarmerMoni specifically focuses on rural farmers.
“With President Muhammadu Buhari’s gracious approval of expansion to provide loans to an additional one million beneficiaries with emphasis on targeting smallholder farmers in the year 2020/2021, the GEEP has been restructured and is being flagged-off today as GEEP 2.0.
“The GEEP 2.0 is structured to effectively deliver soft loans and skills to a wide range of unemployed citizens including persons living with disability, marginalised women and unemployed youths amongst other vulnerable groups in our society.”
Umar said the GEEP 2.0 is well-coordinated and has an implementation model that accommodates representation at the federal, state and local government levels and that the restructured GEEP includes an increase in the loan portfolio of TraderMoni and MarketMoni loans from N10,000 to N50,000, while the FarmerMoni is now N300,000.
She said there is also the provision of a value chain and the creation of a digital marketplace (E-platform) for beneficiaries to sell their products.
