The Kwara State Government is understudying the TraderMoni programme of the Federal Government to extend soft loans to traders and reduce mass poverty in the state.

“On Friday, Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq visited the Abuja headquarters of the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP), the implementers of the TraderMoni initiative, with a view to replicate same in Kwara,” spokesman Rafiu Ajakaye said in a statement.

GEEP, which is supervised by the Bank of Industry, is one of the four sub-programmes of the National Social Investment Office (NSIO).

The statement said the visit was for AbdulRazaq to discuss partnership with GEEP handlers on how Kwarans can further access the micro loans and lift thousands of people out of poverty.

Accompanied by Mrs Uwais, former Special Adviser to the president on Social Investments, the governor listened to details of the initiative, including the challenge of implementing it in Kwara and how it could help fight poverty, the statement added.

“After learning the back-end processes involved, we are looking at the possibility of starting the Kwara version of Trader-Moni later this year after appropriate legislations and budgetary provisions,” according to the statement.

The visit came two days after AbdulRazaq visited the headquarters of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency to seek partnership on how to revive the state’s comatose health sector.