Microfinance gaining ground in Quezon City

Quezon City’s own version of the highly successful Grameen Bank’s microcredit that benefited thousands of Bangladesh poor is "growing by leaps and bounds" and bringing economic empowerment to the city’s poor families.

Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr. described the QC Puhunang Pangkaunlaran Sikap Buhay (PPSB) program "as one of the city’s investments in productivity that lead to enterprise creation and job generation."

The scheme is also fast making Quezon City the country’s entrepreneurship and cooperative center.

Livelihood and entrepreneurship are important components of the LIFE investments that the QC government intends to sustain in four key areas, according to Belmonte.

The other components are infrastructure development, fiscal and financial management, and education.

La Rainne Abad Sarmiento, who heads the task force implementing the program, said "the total amount of loans released for Sikap Buhay borrowers has already reached P262 million."

She also said the total number of Sikap Buhay member-beneficiaries is now over 20,000 as of Oct. 31 this year.

Sarmiento is optimistic that Sikap Buhay will be able to replicate in Quezon City the success of the microfinance strategy developed decades ago by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh.

Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for helping millions of poor women in his country become entrepreneurs by providing them with no-collateral microcredit. His Grameen system has become the model of microfinancing programs in more than 60 countries, including the Philippines.

In the Philippines, many communities in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao are benefiting from Grameen-style programs that offer the best microcredit and training to aspiring entrepreneurs.

In Quezon City, the "homegrown livelihood lending and training program" that is called Sikap Buhay is growing.