DAILY POST had reported that the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Lagos State chapter, had alleged that President Muhammadu Buhari-led All Progressives Congress government was buying votes ahead of the 2019 election.
The PDP described the N10,000 Trader Moni as an inducement.
But reacting, Osinbajo refuted the claims saying, there was no sincerity in the allegation.
He said, “The first person to say TraderMoni is vote buying is Senate President Bukola Saraki but if we want to be sincere, we must understand it is the Senate and House of Representatives that agreed to TraderMoni and passed it in the budget.
“There is no sincerity in that allegation. When you go to markets, you will see enumerators who will take personal data, take pictures and visit the stall of the petty trader before their applications are processed. The money is for petty traders and the money is sent to their phones, it is not disbursed in cash,” he said.
Osinbajo further explained that the Federal Government decided to embark on TraderMoni because petty traders account for the chunk of traders in Nigeria.
“With two weeks to the 2015 election, the former government withdrew $292m from the Central Bank of Nigeria and it was shared amongst themselves. Today, $292m is N80bn, while on the money disbursed for TraderMoni is just N20bn, if we had all this money, we would reach more petty traders.
“The programme is handled by the Bank of Industry. They are the ones in charge of disbursement as well.”
