Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum has paid a two day humanitarian visit to Gwoza local government area of southern Borno where he shared N150m loans and grants with small and medium scale traders in the area.
The Governor also presented variety of food items to 27,000 vulnerable persons in the communities.
While presenting the funds to the traders, Governor Zulum explained that, the loan/grant with refundable period of four years, is meant to resuscitate businesses and livelihoods destroyed by the Boko Haram insurgents in Gwoza communities.
Zulum announced that any beneficiary that is able to repay 50% of his or her loans within record time, will enjoy waver of the balance of 50%, while those who deliberately fail to repay within the dateline will be made to repay 100% of what they received as loans and grants.
FROM the funds, N100m was allocated to small and medium entrepreneurs living within Gwoza town, while N50m was allocated to similar traders in Fulka, Izge and Limankara towns, all in Gwoza LGA.
Depending on the sizes of their businesses, the jobs they create and capacity to upset loans, six traders received N1m each, 38 traders received N500,000 each, 250 others received N250,000 each, 404 others received N100,000 each and another 732 traders got N30,000 each.
Meanwhile, 27,000 vulnerable residents of Gwoza local government also received variety of food items during the Governor’s two-day humanitarian trip.
11,000 male residents received food during Saturday’s distribution, while 16,000 female residents are scheduled to receive similar food on Sunday.
Before embarking on his trip, Zulum had deployed dozens of trailers loaded with varieties of food items to Gwoza, for which he is directly supervising distribution.
The Governor has also commissioned a 50-bed capacity healthcare centre in Kawuri town of Konduga local government area, in central part of Borno state.
The facility is expected to increase access to public healthcare for villagers in Kawuri, one of the communities where internally displaced persons have been resettled in more than 500 newly built resettlement houses.
