FG approves N6.2m loan for retired civil servants in Bauchi

By Samuel Luka, Bauchi

The sum of N6.2 million has been approved as loan for five retired civil servants from the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) in Bauchi State.

The State Coordinator of the Directorate in Bauchi, Mr Lawan Yaya, made the disclosure in an interview to Newsmen on Friday.

He said that the loan was approved under the Mature Peoples Programme of the agency, adding that each of the five beneficiaries would be given N1, 250,000.

Yaya described the programme as an initiative of the Director-General of the NDE, Malam Abubakar Fikpo.

He said that the loan was reinvigorated by the director-general, after many years of neglect.

According to him, the aim and objective of the loan is to assist retiring officials from the NDE, to have something to do after retirement.

“It is mostly for retired civil servants with some of them from the agency while others are from the National Senior Citizens Centre”, Yaya said.

“We have received the approval and the names of those beneficiaries. They have already been documented and now the loan is ready to be disbursed,” he added.

The state coordinator, noted that the beneficiaries have a six-month moratorium while the money will be repaid in three years.

Similarly, Yaya noted that the directorate had approved the sum of N3.5 million loan for seven graduates of tertiary institutions in Bauchi State.

He said that each of the beneficiaries would be given N500,000, having undergone ‘Start Your Own Business’ (SYOB) training from the NDE in the state.

Yaya pointed out that the beneficiaries have been trained and have written their feasibility reports which were sent to headquarters of the Directorate for appraisal, adding that N500,000 has already been approved for each of them.