Thursday, February 21, 2013

Ajimobi to give relocated traders interest-free loans

Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State has promised traders who were relocated to all the neighbourhood markets established by the government interest-free loans to boost their trade.

He gave the promise on Wednesday shortly after completing a facilities tour of some projects currently being executed by his administration within Ibadan metropolis.

Governor Ajimobi, who said that the loans would be repaid at the traders’ convenience, thanked the people of the state for their cooperation and support for his government’s urban renewal programmes.

``I think generally, things are improving. We are very happy and you can see that our people are cooperating; everybody has now realized the need to keep our environment very clean, to make it aesthetically attractive and to ensure that potential investors can come to Oyo State.

``I am generally happy with the compliance of our people; we went to the market; those that we removed from the streets are very happy and we have also promised to assist them financially; we will give them interest-free loans which they can use to trade.

``We believe that traders are the bedrock of the economy of the state and we intend to help all our traders but we don’t want people to trade on the streets any longer,’’ he said.

He appealed to traders who were still trading on the streets to vacate and move to the neighbourhood markets where necessary facilities were being provided for their convenience.

The governor also disclosed that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had assisted the state government by allocating funds to build a library at the newly-established Technical University.

Some of the projects inspected by the governor included the Technical University and the Transformation Housing Estate, both on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, as well as the Scout Camp Neighbourhood Market at Challenge in Ibadan.

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