The government of Edo State has called on citizens of the state to avail themselves of the opportunity of the federal government General Enterprise Empowerment Programme (GEEP), saying that the forms are still available for collection.
The government said this on Monday, adding that over 1,000 farmers, business cooperatives and market associations across the state have so far registered for the loan scheme.
A statement from the Office of the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Godwin Obaseki said the forms are available in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
Besides, the statement explained the process of the implementation of the enterprise programme in the state.
It said, “GEEP is part of the federal government’s Social Investment Programme geared towards the empowerment of petty traders, market women, small-scale farmers and artisans in the country.
“The scheme targets the registration of over 120,000 cooperatives and associations in the state to benefit from loans ranging from N10,000 to N100,000 in the first phase.
“We have called for expression of interest; the programme is for cooperatives and not for individuals, but individuals are allowed to form associations. So far, over 600 co-operative societies and 400 associations have come to take the ‘expression of interest form.
“The the loan is a soft credit facility to the lower cadre of the society, which has a repayment period of 6 months (24 weeks) and has a moratorium of between 2 to 3 weeks”.
It added saying, “once an association completes repayment of the loan disbursed at the first phase, it would be qualified for the second phase, which is a loan of N250,000 and that the federal government’ agent for the programme in the state was in charge of the disbursement of the loan to the qualified beneficiaries”.
