MANILA -- Small Business (SB) Corp., the financing arm of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), has tapped financial technology firm CRIF Corp. as its credit development partner (CDP) for government’s Pondo sa Pagbabago at Pag-asenso (P3) microfinance program.
In a statement Monday, SB Corp. President and Chief Executive Officer Ma. Luna Cacanando said its partnership with CRIF will involve providing loan origination service, credit information service, and scoring service.
“The agreement with CRIF will make borrowing from P3 easier for the micro enterprise. If in the previous P3 scheme, micro business owners get to borrow from cooperatives only if they are members, with the P3 scheme via fintech, borrowers can transact with any CDP,” said Cacanando.
“The plan is to set up CDPs within an hour's commute from the micro enterprise communities. Moreover, the loan will be directly released to the debit card issued to the borrowers,” she added.
The P3 Program was launched by DTI to give better financial access to borrowers, particularly those in rural areas, to keep them from being preyed upon by informal lenders imposing usurious interest rates like the “5-6” lending scheme.
The P3 Program offers a yield of 2.5 percent per month. “We are encouraging rural banks, credit cooperatives and private financing companies with lending license to partner with us in the nationwide delivery of P3 loans.
Enabling our enterprising poor to help themselves will level the playing field and empower them to take advantage of the economic gains rallied by the entire government and by the President himself,” Cacanando said.
Meanwhile, DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez said the government eyes to increase P3 Program budget for next year to PHP6 billion from the current PHP1 billion to PHP2 billion in order to reach more borrowers in the poorest communities in the country.
Lopez said DTI also aims to institutionalize P3 Program in order to have allocation annually for the program.
Currently, budget for the P3 Program comes from the Office of the President and is coursed through SB Corp. (PNA)
