Poor folk granted loans

More than 50,000 impoverished Filipino farmers, fisherfolk, informal workers, landless urban settlers and indigenous people were granted loans by various microfinance institutions during the first quarter of this year alone, the National Anti-Poverty Commission said.

NAPC chief Secretary Domingo Panganiban said the People’s Credit and Finance Corp., the govern­ment’s lead agency in micro­finance, registered around 556 new clients a day during the three-month period covering January to March this year for a cumulative total of 50,111 new microfinance borrowers nationwide.

“The beneficiaries who were granted loans used the money as start-up capital for small enterprises, which in turn created jobs for an additional 13,250 previously unemployed or underemployed poor folk,” Panganiban said.

These small enterprises include the establishment of sari-sari stores, trading, food processing and agri-related enterprises, among others, he said.

He said the government’s intensified microfinance program is part of a massive and sustained effort to afford the poor the capital and training they require to profit from small but competitive enterprises in the wake of rising fuel and food prices.

PCFC president Edgar Generoso said the average amount of loans issued per borrower by PCFC conduits has seen a significant increase over the past few years.

“A few years ago, our partner microfinance institutions granted loans amounting to as low as P2,000 each. Today, the average loan size per borrower ranges between P8,000 to P10,000,” Generoso said.

NAPC oversees the management of the People’s Development Trust Fund (PDTF), a grant facility for microfinance capacity-building efforts established specifically for the Filipino poor in 1998 through RA 8425.  The fund is administered by the PCFC.

A report forwarded by the PCFC to NAPC indicated the new loans were issued through the corporation’s 190 partner institutions, which include 75 rural banks, 51 cooperatives, 42 non-government organizations, 18 cooperative banks, two thrift banks and two lending investors.