KASAMAKA COLLABORATION FOR FINANCIAL INCLUSION:

Voyager Innovations president and CEO Orlando Vea (left) turns over the FINTQ Inclusive Digital Finance Report 2017-2018 to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr. during the official launch at the BSP complex of KasamaKa, a multisectoral, income-generating and community building program aimed at pushing greater financial inclusion nationwide through a digitized incentive program. The report discusses the current state of financial inclusion across the country, and how FinTech can help address the gaps in access to financial instruments by the greater population. Also present during the turnover of the report were Securities and Exchange Commission chairperson Teresita Herbosa and FINTQ managing director Lito Villanueva.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the financial technology arm of the PLDT Group’s Voyager Innovations launched a grassroots movement that aims to help promote inclusive digital finance for all Filipinos nationwide.

FINTQ, BSP as well as several partners in the government, banking, financial services, and civil sectors, Wednesday launched “KasamaKa” – an income and community builder that aims to spread greater access to finance to more Filipinos nationwide through a digital referral system that incentivizes enterprising individuals.

BSP Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr. said many Filipinos remain at the outskirts of society when it comes to access to finance translating to limited economic opportunities needed to drive inclusive growth.

“We welcome FINTQ’s KasamaKa as a private sector initiative that supports the objectives of the National Strategy for Financial Inclusion. We see its potential to promote the development of inclusive digital finance and establish a mechanism where Filipinos can become ambassadors of financial inclusion in their respective communities,” Espenilla said.

The program also steers Filipinos away from informal lenders by giving them access to reasonable cost of credit, and introducing them to a complete suite of digital financial services.

PLDT, Smart, Voyager and FINTQ chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said “digital technology plays a key role in giving wider access to finance for all–but it must be complemented by a program that recognizes the realities lived by Filipinos every day.”

“KasamaKa aims to be that bridge linking the government and the private sector’s efforts to the common folk so that all of the benefits of technology are genuinely felt by all,” he said.

The movement aims to translate the BSP’s National Strategy for Financial Inclusion (NSFI) framework into an inclusive, on-ground, scalable, and sustainable execution that will also help push the share of digital transactions in the country to 20 percent by 2020–one of the key goals of the National Retail Payments System (NRPS).