Maybank to train 4,000 Pinoys under RISE 2.0

MAYBANK aims to train over 4,000 disadvantaged Filipinos to become entrepreneurs within five years.

At the launch of its flagship economic empowerment program RISE (Reach Independence and Sustainable Entrepreneurship) 2.0 on Thursday, Maybank Foundation Chief Executive Officer Shahril Azuar Jimin said the bank was looking to train 1,760 Filipinos during the first two years of the program.

“Throughout, we are looking at another 2,400 people to bring the [number of] beneficiaries to over 4,000 by 2023,” he added.

RISE is a five-year program designed to train, coach and mentor participants to develop their entrepreneurial skills in attaining a higher income level and improve their overall standard of living.

“RISE 2.0 will predominantly focus on helping and nurturing PWDs ( persons with disabilities) to compete in a sustainable manner in the current age of digitalization,” Shahril said.

“It is important that our communities, especially the underserved ones, are able to withstand the challenges in today’s volatile operating environment, as they cannot be left behind while the wider population continues to profit from the advancement in technology,” he added.

Shahril assured that Maybank would reach out to underbanked communities from rural areas to improve their access to banking services to ensure that PWDs would benefit from the program.

“This is part of the bank’s mission to humanize financial services by supporting local business growth, as well as strengthen financial inclusion in Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations),” the Maybank Foundation chief said.

The launch of RISE 2.0 came after the completion of the first phase of the program, which ran from 2014 to 2019. It benefited 1,292 participants in the Philippines, 2,551 in Malaysia, 2,269 in Indonesia and 246 in Laos.

Through RISE 2.0, the countries covered will include Myanmar and Singapore to improve the lives of more than 17,000 communities by 2023.

The bank also allocated an equivalent of P107-million funding to the program.