Governor Babagana Umara Zulum was on Saturday in Gwoza Local Government Area of southern Borno for humanitarian and developmental activities, which began on Friday.
After passing the night in the town, Zulum on Saturday shared N150 million as soft loans and grants to small and medium scale traders.
From the funds, N100 million was allocated to small and medium entrepreneurs living within Gwoza town, while N50 million 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 N1 million 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.
The Governor 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 communities of Gwoza.
Zulum announced that any beneficiary that is able to repay 50 per cent of his or her loans within record time, will enjoy waver of the balance of 50 per cent, while those who deliberately fail to repay within the dateline will be made to repay 100 per cent of what they received as loans and grants.
Meanwhile, 27,000 vulnerable residents of Gwoza LGA received variety of food items during the Governor’s two-day humanitarian trip, which started on Friday.
Eleven thousand 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.
Before reaching Gwoza on Friday, Governor Zulum commissioned a 50-bed capacity healthcare centre in Kawuri town of Konduga Local Government Area in the 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.