OFWs, kin equipped with financial skills

ACCORDING to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ Consumer Expectations Survey published in the second quarter of 2019, 33.9% of Filipino households that received overseas Filipino workers (OFW) remittances allot money for savings and 5.2% have investments .

To improve these figures and help these modern heroes build better lives with their loved ones, BPI Foundation, the social innovation platform of Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), has expanded BPI Sulong, its program teaching financial management and entrepreneurship to OFWs. First implemented in Hong Kong in 2015, BPI Sulong, through its partnership with Atikha Overseas Workers and Communities Initiative, Inc., has made its way this year to Singapore, one of the Philippines’ top sources of OFW remittances and employing over 180,000 OFWs.

BPI Sulong advocates

shared financial responsibility among OFWs and their family members. Through seminars and workshops on financial management and entrepreneurship, the program educates OFWs on how to save, grow, and invest their earnings. “While these OFW remittances help their families with their day-to-day living, we see the need to teach them how to better manage their money to ensure that the fruits of their labor and sacrifice will go to supporting their dreams,” said Maricris San Diego, Executive Director of BPI Foundation. “With BPI Sulong, we provide financial management and entrepreneurship training and workshops to make the most out of their earnings, so they can build better lives once they come home.” Since it launched, BPI Sulong has helped over 6,000 OFWs and more than 7,000 family members make better financial decisions for their future.