TheCable

Thugs suspected to be supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), invaded the mandate market and Ipata market in Ilorin, Kwara state, on Thursday morning, chasing away petty traders and TraderMoni agents.

They prevented the agents from carrying on the business of disbursing money to beneficiaries of the TraderMoni scheme.

Witnesses said as early as 9am, a small mob, some of them wearing PDP Atikulated T-shirts, stormed the market, led by one Alhaja Gazali, insisting that the TraderMoni scheme cannot be conducted in the Mandate market.

According to witnesses, including Bank of Industry (BOI) officials, who were at the market to supervise the enumeration and disbursement of the N10,000 collateral free loans, the arrival of the mob caused an uproar in the market as many of the traders who were yet to receive their loans were annoyed that the process was disrupted.

This led to chaos which forced the TraderMoni agents to escape as they were chased away.

Officials of the Bank of Industry told reporters that enumeration had been going on in the two markets in Kwara in the last few days and that the vice-president was expected in the markets on Friday.

At the Ipata market where enumeration and disbursement of the TraderMoni loans was also going on, market leaders also reported that a call came about noon today from similar quarters asking the leaders of the market not to cooperate with the enumerators of the TraderMoni scheme.

But the market leaders in Ipata insisted and the process of enumeration and disbursement in Ipata market reportedly proceeded without incident.

The scheme, an initiative of the federal government, has come under attack by opposition figures, with Senate President Bukola Saraki describing it as advanced vote-buying.

TraderMoni, which is part of the federal government’s social investment programme (N-SIP) under GEEP, is designed to assist petty traders across the country expand their trade through the provision of collateral and interest-free loans from N10,000.

The loans are repayable over a period of six months at which point the traders on repayment will receive a fresh N15,000 loan, which rises to N20,000 when repaid.

The current administration says the microcredit scheme, which has since been formally launched nationwide and the FCT, is expected to reach 2 million petty traders by the end of the year.