Fund for Pangasinan Micro Finance Bank trickles in
FROM JDV’S CDF AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
MANAOAG—House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. is shelling out P16.5 million from his countrywide development fund for the first Pangasinan Micro Finance Bank in the fourth district.
De Venecia, who has started distributing the amount over the weekend, said the project is patterned after Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, for which its founder, Mohammad Yunus, won the Nobel Peace Prize last year.
The Pangasinan Micro Finance Bank will be partnering with existing cooperatives in Dagupan City and the four towns the fourth district, namely: San Jacinto, Manaoag, Mangaldan and San Fabian.
The credit cooperative in Dagupan City has already received P3.5 million while Manaoag Savings and Credit Cooperative was given P1 million. The three other towns will get their share in the coming weeks, De Venecia said.
The Catholic church of Dagupan has thrown in its support to the project by pledging to give a counter part of P1million, De Venecia said
The credit cooperative in Dagupan City started with a P25,000 capital 25 years ago and has now grown with a P10 million fund.
De Venecia said the Pangasinan Micro Finance Bank is intended to serve the poor “because the commercial banks in the Philippines are owned by rich people and the poor people have no access to credit and they have no collaterals so how can they borrow from the banking system?”
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is set to issue a license for the financial institution.
Training for managers, supervised by the BSP, is now ongoing in preparation for the bank’s full operation.
De Venecia said the bank is aimed at encouraging entrepreneurship.
The borrower, who need not put up a collateral, will have to get two signatories as guarantors for the loan which will have a minimal interest rate of 1%.—EVA
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