SBCorp providing interest-free loans to Lanao del Sur microentrepreneurs

Small Business Corp. (SBCorp), the Department of Trade and Industry’s financing and guarantee attached unit, is set to offer zero percent interest loans to help the people of Lanao del Sur, specifically microentrepreneurs from Marawi displaced by the war.

The zero percent interest loans will be implemented starting next month up to April 2018 in line with government’s rehabilitation efforts for Marawi City, according to the DTI.

“The recent events in Marawi raised the need to generate several programs that will aid in the rehabilitation of Marawi and the full assistance to affected residents. In support of government-wide efforts to help the people of Marawi, we will be working closely with our Maranao countrymen to ensure they have access to the needed funds to get their businesses back on their feet,” Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said.

After the interest free-loan, Lopez said DTI would also extend to the Lanao del Sur area the Pondo sa Pagbabago at Pag-asenso (P3) program.

The P3 program will provide credit risk support to microfinance institutions (MFIs) that want to start lending to the Lanao del Sur area in exchange for their timely and quick response.

The DTI said SBCorp has accredited a total of 94 MFIs to date, with another 45 in the pipeline.

Moreover, the P3 program is now rolled out throughout the entire country except for a handful of provinces, with close to 40,000 borrowers.

“We laud SBCorp’s untiring efforts to link up with finance institutions across the country to ensure conduits are in place for the P3 program. We have the funds, and we now have the channels to help our MSMEs expand their businesses,” Lopez said.

For 2018, the government will add another P1 billion to the P3 fund to support more microenterprises in growing their businesses.

SBCorp will be accrediting at least five local MFIs per province in the coming years to ensure that microenterprises will have easy and reliable access to reasonablypriced credit within their own locality, with a total of 400 grassroots conduits targeted.

The agency will also support these MFIs by way of capacity-building training.

Through the P3 program, the government hopes to encourage communities to organize themselves into cooperatives or other self-help units engaged in entrepreneurship.