[ Manila Bulletin Online ] August 31, 2008 ]
By MIKE U. CRISMUNDO
DTI grants P169.65 M loans to 18,844 micro entrepreneurs
BUTUAN CITY – Economic activities in Northeastern Mindanao (Caraga region) went into high gear as micro entrepreneurs were able to access some P169.65 million loans from the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) Rural Micro Enterprise Promotion Program (RuMEPP).
Data gathered from the regional office of DTI also disclosed that about 18,844 micro entrepreneurs were recipients of the RuMEPP program.
RuMEPP is a seven-year poverty alleviation project of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) based in Rome, Italy and the government of the Philippines with the DTI as the lead agency and the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) as cooperating institution.
The objective of the program is rural poverty reduction through increased economic development, job creation and rural incomes for 200,000 poor rural households in 19 of the poorest provinces in the country.
The program has three components, namely: Microfinance Credit and Support, Micro Enterprise Promotion and Development and Programme and Policy Coordination.
Under the program’s Microfinance Credit Support Component, wholesale loans are provided to micro finance institutions (MFI) such as rural banks, cooperatives and non government organizations for lending to micro entrepreneurs through the Small Business Corp. (SBC), an attached agency of DTI.
RuMEPP loans are from the US$ 15 million IFAD funding which will be drawn by SBC over seven years at an annual average of US$ 2.14 million or P90 million (at P42:$ 1). SBC is committed to disburse in 2008 at least P100 million in IFAD-funded wholesale microfinance loans, and every year thereafter until the seventh year.
