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By Nasir Kura
President Muhammadu Buhari conceived the TraderMoni scheme way back during the years when he was chairman of the Katsina State Development Foundation, which gave soft loans and micro-credits to people to assist them in their respective businesses, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, said on Monday.
Osinbajo, who disclosed this during the Family Chats in Abuja, said said the Buhari administration would continue to maximize the country’s huge resources for the benefit of the common man.
“President Muhammadu Buhari said, ‘I will fight corruption, I’m for the common man. I’m for the man in the street.’ I don’t know if you have heard about TraderMoni, the loans we are giving to petty traders.
“He (President) was chairman of Katsina (State Development) Foundation, where they were doing the same thing – giving poor people loans, credits, so that they will be able to do their businesses. He then told me, when we came into office, that we must do the same thing for all Nigerian traders,” he said.
The Vice President said the country is undergoing a rebuilding process under the Buhari administration.
“The message from President Muhammadu Buhari is that our country is going to the next level. We are going to do better and better. We are going to use the money of Nigeria to help Nigerians. So that traders would have more money for their businesses, so that every Nigerian can prosper.
“Mr. President has said that he will not allow a situation where people steal our money. That’s why we are not going back to the past, our money must be used for Nigerians.
That’s why we have schemes like TraderMoni, MarketMoni, and our Social Investment Programmes,” he said.
He said the country would be great as the President is ensuring the right foundations are built for the country’s long-term prosperity.
He said: “When you are building a foundation, things will be hard. When you are not importing everything, things will be hard. We all know. But things will be better because it is an honest man who is there and the building process is still ongoing. Our country will be great.
“God has provided for this country a lot of resources, but it must go round, so that there would be education, health, houses for people. Look at what is happening in the North now because of the Anchor Borrowers Programme. We gave many of the farmers, over 760,000 farmers, soft loans.
“So, now they are producing rice, producing millet, producing sorghum. We are not importing rice now. We are bringing rice from Kebbi, from Sokoto, from all over the country. By next year, we will not import rice. All our rice will be produced here. When you do that farmers will be rich.
“Farmers in other countries they are rich people. They are not poor. I’ve been to a country where farmers own airplanes. Why? Because their leaders are not thieves. Their leaders help them so that they can farm; they can expand their farms and they can earn money.”
