UCPB group loans to coco farmers hit P5.6 billion

MANILA, Philippines - UCPB-Coconut Industry Investment Fund Finance and Development Corp. (Coco Finance), a unit of United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB), has loaned out P5.6 billion to small coconut farmers.

This loan has benefited more than 300,000 farmers who sought funding for livelihood projects, farming, enterprise venturing, and trading activities.

Meanwhile, UCPB-CIIF Foundation Inc. (Cocofoundation) recently marked its 25th year of providing assistance to local coconut farmers and their families through scholarship grants and economic upliftment.

Established in 1987, Cocofoundation began helping coconut farmers with its flagship Adopt-a-School for Development Program, until it sponsored its first batch of 30 college scholars in 1988. Since then, it has supported more students in partnership with other companies.

Seeing the need to expand its educational support, Cocofoundation launched its scholarship program in 2004 to help improve the lives of coconut farmers’ children.

A total of 1,589 scholars from 53 coconut-growing provinces have availed of financial assistance for them to pursue a college degree in over 40 state colleges or complete a VOCTECH course from Don Bosco Training Centers or TESDA-accredited schools.

To date, the Cocofoundation scholarship program has produced 819 graduates, 388 of them with college degrees and 431 with vocational-technical certificates.

Cocofoundation not only provides scholarship grants, but also career opportunities to scholar-graduates through assistance in career development and job application.

“We feel (our scholarship program) is one way of helping the children of small coconut farmers find better opportunities in life,” Cocofoundation president Edgardo C. Amistad said.

To help elementary students improve their academic performance, the foundation also provides educational materials and teacher training to public elementary schools in coconut-growing areas. Close to 100,000 pupils have benefited from the beginning reading program and video lessons in Math, Science, English, History and Values.

“While we continue to do our share to improve the lives of the millions of coconut farmers in the country, there’s still so much more to be done. We will continue to do our best to do more, until we can finally say that coconut farmers and their respective families are living the life they truly deserve,” Amistad said.