LINGAYEN– More than 15,000 small entrepreneurs have already availed of the P61.6 million livelihood assistance provided by the provincial government since 2008.

Luz Muego, the provincial government’s consultant on livelihood programs and population services, confirmed this during the latest distribution of livelihood assistance to over 400 beneficiaries last January 13 in Lingayen.

Muego said 441 associations and 51 individual small business owners from different towns of the province have availed of the “supervised credit” livelihood program of the provincial government.

“When we started in 2008, we only had 83 beneficiaries from five groups,” she recalled.

The Provincial Livelihood Assistance Program of Pangasinan is a loan program of the provincial government with a minimum interest rate, geared at helping those who have just started their small enterprises gain more with additional capital from the province’s livelihood trust fund.

Governor Amado Espino Jr., who personally handed the checks to the latest beneficiaries amounting to a total of P3,000,500, said most of the program’s recipients are wives of farmers.

He added that the program is deemed successful with a 97% payment collection rate.

Likewise, Muego noted, “Since most of the beneficiaries are women, the program is indeed empowering women.”

Muego added that the program have produced several successful businesswomen in the province.

The success of the program can be attributed not only to its ability to provide loans but also for its readiness to provide capability-building trainings on livelihood, said Muego.

Borrowers are commonly into commodity trading, rice trading, farm imput, buy and sell and direct selling, vegetable trading, shell crafts and other souvenir items production, cooperative relending. (Johanne R. Macob)

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