New US ambassador backs microfinance scheme of rural banks

MANILA, Philippines - US Ambassador Harry K. Thomas has thrown his support to the Philippine rural banking system’s efforts to spread and enhance microfinance for poverty alleviation.

Thomas cited the progressive efforts of the Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines (RBAP) and the Microentrepreneurs Access to Banking Services (MABS) program of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

He said the country’s rural banks and the USAID program had improved the financial status of the poor and the rural folk.

Rural banks which have enrolled in the MABS program have disbursed 2.2 million micro-loans amounting to roughly P29 billion to over 700,000 micro-borrowers. They have likewise generated micro-deposits amounting to nearly P2 billion from roughly 1.4 million micro-accounts.

“This has undoubtedly pulled families out of poverty and sparked entrepreneurship throughout the country,” Thomas said in his keynote address during the 57th RBAP annual national convention yesterday.

In fact, Thomas revealed that his parents were also micro-borrowers. “Up to this day, they are reaping the benefits of those loans.”

Likewise, US firms operating in the Philippines are involved in corporate social responsibility geared towards their particular interests but nonetheless supportive of poverty alleviation.

The US envoy said ensuring the financial inclusion of the poor and rural folks is not just placed on the lap of corporate efforts and socially-related foundations.

 “The issue of increasing the financial inclusion of the poor and rural folk is in this room. The opportunity is here, and the time is now,” Thomas said.

He likewise expressed support for the new initiatives of the Philippine rural banking system such as micro-insurance for the microborrower, their families and their products.

The program has not only help institutionalize microfinance among the 600 or so rural banking system. It is likewise in the forefront for the development of microfinance for the agricultural sector, micro-insurance and microfinance for housing.