Paseda Empowers Ogun State Market Women, Petty Traders 

By Femi Ogbonnikan

Respite is now on the way of Ogun State market women and petty traders as a non-governmental socio-cultural group, Paseda Women Forum (PWF), has made available N10 million as a takeoff soft loans to them aimed at improving the lots of the women folk in the Gateway State.

Onikolobo, Abeokuta, Ogun State Secretariat of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), on September 25, 2017, played host to thousands of market women and petty traders drawn from the three senatorial districts of the state who thronged the venue to benefit from the interest-free soft loan made available by the 2015 Ogun State gubernatorial candidate of the UPN, Otunba Rotimi Paseda.

President of the PWF, Mrs Yemi Layeni, in her address to the beneficiaries of the maiden edition of the loan scheme, stated that the initiative was borne out of the need to ameliorate the poor living conditions of the market women and petty traders who have been at the receiving end of the present excruciating economic conditions in the country.

According to her, the loan scheme is a sign of good things to come soon from the initiator of the programme, in the person of Otunba Paseda.

“The loan scheme is designed for both medium and small business enterprises. Otunba Paseda has taken cognizance of the scheme with a bid promote owners of medium and small scale enterprises and banish poverty. The loan is zero-interest, without fee in obtaining form. We are targeting well over 5,000 traders to benefit from the first phase of this scheme.

“I want to appeal to beneficiaries to make judicious use of the loan and refund it within two months, so that other applicants can as well benefit from the scheme. This is the maiden edition of the scheme, while subsequent ones will be taken to the doorsteps of the beneficiaries at three various senatorial districts across the state”, said the PWF President.

Also, Coordinating Director, Paseda Legacy Foundation (PLF), Babatunde Folarin, admonished the beneficiaries of the scheme, not to see the loan as a national cake but a new lease of life to touch their lives by reinvesting the money to boost their trades and at the same time, pay it back within the stipulated two months as agreed upon.