PCFC extends credit to 420,000 beneficiaries

The People’s Credit & Finance Corp. (PCFC) reported that its total end-borrowers reached 418,567 in October this year since it started extending microcredit to the poor sector of the country about five years ago.

PCFC president Iluminada L. E. Cabigas, in a statement reiterated her deep commitment to the poverty eradication program of Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo during the Urban Poor Solidarity Week Celebration at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig City recently.

The statistic just shows that PCFC, together with its partner conduit institutions, is relentless in its fight against poverty and this was reinforced when PCFC forged an agreement with the Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor (PCUP) in said occasion that launched the "Sulong Kariton" Project.

The PCFC-PCUP sponsored project aims to provide livelihood opportunities to the members of the urban poor sector. PCUP will identify the beneficiaries who should individually apply for their livelihood capital requirements with PCFC’s accredited private-sector lending conduits.

PCFC’s initial partners in the "Sulong Kariton" Project are the following conduits: KS Bank, Eurocredit Cooperative, Barangka Credit Cooperative, First Country Bank, and Producers Rural Bank.

PCFC is a wholesale lender of microfinance funds sourced from foreign institutions like the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD).

With the help of 261 conduits, it utilizes proven microfinance technologies in grassroots lending like the group lending approach, the method of the Association for Social Advancement (ASA) and the MABS (Microenterprise Access to Banking Services) Program sponsored by the Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines (RBAP) and the World Bank.

In spite of the P3.003-billion loans thus far released by PCFC, the corporation maintains a collection rate of 98 percent from its conduits. At the same time, its conduits – composed of banks, cooperatives, cooperative banks, and non-government organizations – enjoy almost the same collection rate from the end-borrowers.

PCFC sources say that these figures should attract more private sector institutions to go into microfinance and help the poor find livelihood opportunities that will emancipate them from their dire straits.

As a positive indicator in the potential of microfinance in the country, it was pointed out that PCFC was able to post a P39.779- million net profit as of Oct. 31, 2001. This indicates that the government corporation can plow back to the economy what ever it gets from servicing the financial needs of poor.