Soco seeks removal of collateral for MSMEs

To sustain the growth of entrepreneurship in the country, business leader Glenn Anthony Soco is appealing to the government to scrap the collateral requirement for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

Soco, who is the president of Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI), said that amid the government’s campaign on access to finance, MSMEs have not yet felt improvements on the ground.

“Access to capital should be opened,” said Soco, adding that this remains the sentiment of MSMEs based in Mandaue City.

Loans extended by banks to MSMEs in the first quarter of 2017 reached P494.88 billion or 8.4 percent of total loan book but still below the mandated threshold of 10 percent, accord- ing to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

Presidential consultant Jose Maria “Joey” Concepcion III in earlier reports, urged the government, lawmakers and financial institutions to create a friendlier environment for the micro and small entrepreneurs to scale up.

He said it is time that private and public sector unite and help individuals in the MSME sector to help themselves.

He also urged big banks to acquire rural banks to make lending accessible to the grassroots level.

Concepcion said acquisitions would empower rural banks and prevent what happened during Asian crisis in 1997, where more than half of the rural banks were wiped out as a result of worldwide lending not reaching the micro and small level. /