FINTQ helps CARP beneficiaries gain access to home financing

MANILA, Philippines — FINTQnologies Corp. (FINTQ), the financial technology arm of PLDT’s Voyager Innovations, targets to tap agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) for home financing, a first under the government’s 30-year implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

Through the housing program of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), FINTQ will provide ARBs KasamaKA micro-insurance for free for the first three months of the policy.

KasamaKA is a grassroots-based, self-help, and digital-enabled social intervention and last mile solution to promote financial literacy and inclusive growth targeting unbanked and underserved Filipinos through platforms and services for digital lending and micro-insurance.

The housing program calls for the establishment of on-site and off-site housing financing schemes with the on-site covering home improvements of existing houses of ARBs, construction or purchase of a new house, and refinancing of an existing housing loan.

Meanwhile, the off-site housing scheme covers subdivision projects located in the capital or in major urban centers of the host provinces, with subdivision plans and designs that incorporates production facilities such as rice and sugar mills, dryers and warehouses.

DAR and the Home Development Mutual Fund have identified seven pilot areas for the housing program, namely, Bayombong in Nueva Vizcaya,  San Leonardo in Nueva Ecija, Argao in Cebu, Panabo in Davao del Norte, and Butig, Marantao and Piagapo in Lanao del Sur.

DAR Secretary John Castriciones said that under the second phase of the agrarian reform, the ARBs housing program would be one of the major programs that would improve the living condition of farmer-beneficiaries in the country.

“As the DAR celebrates CARP’s 30 year-implementation, the ARBs housing program shall serve as the new face of DAR. This program will pursue financial and ecological needs of ARBs, affordable and decent housing and convergence of support,” he said.

Castriciones said there are some 2.8 million CARP farmer-beneficiaries nationwide, majority of which do not have a house of their own.

“We have seen the increasing traction and adoption of all stakeholders especially our unbanked and underserved Filipinos. They will now be empowered with alternative options to access affordable finance and enjoy sachet financial services,” FINTQ’s managing director Lito Villanueva said.

FINTQ is a financial technology provider of customer-centric, demand-driven, mobile-first, value-creating, and inclusive digital financial innovations.

It is the largest and the only fintech business in the country with diverse digital banking and finance portfolio of platforms including lending and micro-insurance.

It will also soon make available in the market micro-savings, micro-investments, disbursements, and virtual banking, among others.