Buhari’s GEEP, TraderMoni gets int’l commendation

Buhari’s GEEP, TraderMoni gets int’l commendation – The Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP), the microcredit scheme of the federal government has earned international wide acclaimed for driving financial inclusion in the country.

GEEP, a microcredit initiative of the federal government which commenced in 2016, includes MarketMoni, FarmerMoni, and the TraderMoni has impacted over two million Nigerians at the bottom of the pyramid accessing credit in three years and being brought into financial services of bank account and mobile wallets, there is consensus on the scale of impact the initiative wields. GEEP is today the largest public microcredit scheme in the world. 54.2% of its beneficiaries are women.

At last session of 62nd United Nations Commission in New York, GEEP was commended for pushing the envelope in technological innovations for successful last-mile delivery of credit at massive scale. This was in recognition of the programme’spioneering roles in building a completely digitised loan operation, positioning of Bank Verification (BVN) as digital collateral to aid financial inclusion, use of facial recognition for de-deduplication, GPS-based mapping and profile of candidates to markets, andexhaustive data capture to truly formalise the informal sector.

In a related development, the programme’s Chief Operating Officer, Uzoma Nwagba emerged among 22 other emerging African leaders picked across the continent, as a recipient of 2019 Archbishop Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellowship. The Desmond Tutu Fellowship is set up by AFLI and Oxford to identify and cultivate young African leaders whose work has achieved “far reaching impact on the continent.”

Selection into the lifelong Fellowship is an attestation of Uzoma’s role in delivering one of the world’s most impactful tech-based SME intervention programs, and the world’s largest public microcredit scheme. From the AFLI release, Nwagba is Harvard MBA who, prior to GEEP, worked as an Analyst at Goldman Sachs, Product Manager at Microsoft, and Senior Associate at African Capital Alliance. He is passionate about running public institutions like ethical businesses.

On the home scene, beneficiaries affirm the efforts and contributions of GEEP to economic empowerment and growth with the effective deployment of MarketMoni, FarmerMoni and TraderMoni credit initiatives.

According to Mrs Sherifat Salau, a N50, 000 MarketMoni beneficiary fromKwara who received her loan in 2016, “Before receiving GEEP MarketMoni, if I request for a N100, 000 loan, I will have to deposit N7, 500 before the loan is released. Aside from the high deposit, the interest on the N100, 000 would be almost N22, 000. By the time I am done paying back the loan, my goods would have reduced drastically and it stops me from growing the business. The loan has been of help in growing my business. With this loan, I have peace.”

GEEP, a financial inclusion scheme driven by technology has registered over 7million micro-enterprises in less than three years – and is on a mission to deliver access to finance and financial inclusion at Nigeria’s base of the pyramid.