Last updated on July 21st, 2021 at 07:29 am
The 2016 and 2017 N-Power beneficiaries will have access to the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme Loan, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed has said.
She stated this during an interview on NTA Monday, July 13, 2020, while answering questions on “Nigeria Economic Sustainability plan – part 2″.
She specifically answered the question, “Is there a plan for FG to give beneficiaries a permanent job rather than disengaging them to the street?
Recall that the exit plan of the beneficiaries was announced by Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouk Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development a few days ago.
While answering, the minister of finance whose office would approve the financial package said the government of President Muhammadu Buhari has concluded plans to enable the exited 500, 000 beneficiaries to have access to GEEP Loan.
She said, “On the loses of the job for Npower, yes there are Npower employee that has been exited but there is another batch that is going to come out.
“The essence of the whole idea of Npower was that you were to be employed for two years, during the period you are developing skills and then you exit by taking a loan from GEEP to start your own business and that is the concept we are going back to.”
“These ones that have been exited have stayed for over three years and have the opportunity to apply for all of these loans that are structured and we have another batch that is coming,” she said.
What is GEEP Loan?
GEEP is one the programmes under the Social Intervention Programme (SIP) of the Buhari-led APC government.
It is aimed at helping Nigeria’s over 77 million MSMEs, who the government believe would be employer of labour by reducing the rate of unemployment in the country.
GEEP loan aims to support and accelerate the economic activity of MSMEs, one of such platform to implement the GEEP loan is the creation of MarketMoni.
Through the MarketMoni, small business owners exited N-Power beneficiaries will have access to N100,000 at no interest rate apart from a five per cent (5%) one time administrative fee.
Requirements to access the GEEP Loan
The federal government is yet to release further details on how N-Power beneficiaries could access the GEEP Loan, requirements for marketmoni in the past are:
1. You must have a BVN
2. You must belong to an accredited market association or cooperative registered in your State or with the CAC.
3. Your association or cooperative must indicate its interest in MarketMoni by submitting its information to BOI including its certificate of registration.
4. If your association or cooperative qualifies, a MarketMoni agent would be sent to your group promptly to verify and capture your member information for loan assessment.
Requirements to access the GEEP Loan for N-Power Beneficiaries:
It’s possible that the government makes it easier for the 2016 and 2017 batches to access the GEEP loan to start up a small business in their community.
