Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has
explained how President Muhammadu Buhari plans to lift millions of Nigerians
out of poverty.
He said the Federal Government’s
policies and programmes aimed at promoting financial inclusion remain key to
the actualisation of the plan.
Prof. Osinbajo spoke in Abuja at
the opening of the Annual Conference of Chartered Institute of Bankers of
Nigeria (CIBN).
In a statement by his Senior
Special Assistant (SSA) on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, the
Vice-President referred to the President’s June 12 speech where he stated that
“we are working to lift Nigerians out of poverty and set them on the path to
prosperity. We intend to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty over the
next 10 years”.
Osinbajo said: “Financial
inclusion, of course, is the key to realising so much of what we expect as an
economy and the President promised in his June 12 speech to lift 100 million
people out of poverty in 10 years. That is the commitment of the government of
Nigeria.
“We started that journey with our
collaboration with the Bank of Industry (BoI) to deliver the Government Enterprise
and Empowerment Programme (GEEP) programme, better known as TraderMoni and
MarketMoni by providing microcredit to almost two million petty traders.
“The Bank of Industry has now
brought this huge bottom of the pyramid into the formal financial system and
that has been recognised worldwide. “Recently, the programme won the African
Development Bank (AfDB) prize for financial inclusion because of the work that
was done with TraderMoni. This is a huge task.
“Going forward, we now need to
embark on financial training for all of those who have been brought into the
net. As you know, when they’re given N10,000 and they pay back, they are given
N15,000, N20,000, and it goes all the way.
“But at that point they’re given
their Bank Verification Numbers (BVNs), they’re formally included in the
financial system; they’re formally included as formal traders. So, we are able
to give them financial training and all that.”
He added: “…For very long, that
bottom of the pyramid has been completely excluded and yet informal trade is a
significant part of trading that is going on in our country.
“So, there’s a real need out
there and we must devise the methods by which those at the bottom of the
pyramid can be uplifted. We must look at how we can even resource the entire
value chain. What we find is that the petty trader, who just has a trade, is usually
selling little bits and pieces from many of the manufacturers or fast-moving
products. We found that just by giving them credit, we can resource the whole
value chain all the way up.”
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