Transparency International Nigeria has condemned TraderMoni, a collateral-free loan initiative targeted at petty traders and artisans as part of the National Social Investment Programme of the Federal Government, describing it as a form of vote buying.

The Chairman of the anti-corruption organization, Awwal Rafsanjani, who made the allegation on Thursday while speaking on Lunchtime Politics, a Channels Television programme said the initiative was an official use of public funds to induce voters.

Rafsanjani maintained that the TraderMoni scheme was not a programme that was part and parcel of the manifesto of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), nor is it contained in the country’s constitution.

It was not done three years ago. It was only started close to election time. So, the allegation by many Nigerians that this is clearly a case of vote buying using public funds goes contrary to our constitution and to having a free and fair election.

“That is why the Independent National Electoral Commission itself has seen this danger. The vote-buying we are seeing has transformed to have more official recognition through the acts that unfortunately we are seeing performed by some of the agencies using public funds.

“This is despite the statement by the President that public funds will not be used for his re-election campaign. But this, unfortunately, is contrary to what Nigerians are seeing,” Rafsanjani said.

The APC-led Federal Government had severally argued that the TraderMoni was an empowerment initiative designed to meet the financing need of at least two million petty traders across the federation.