By June Blanco
Sunday Post
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) will launch its
Bohol Coopreneurs Credit Surety Fund (CSF) program today at the Bohol Beach Club in the resort town of Panglao.
Chair of the Monetary Board and BSP Gov. Amando Tetangco Jr. and Bohol Gov. Erico Aumentado will lead the signing ceremony scheduled at 4 p.m. at the resort’s Amihan wing.
Aumentado said he is ready to put in P5 million or more as counterpart to the amount local cooperatives may raise for the fund.
The CSF is BSP’s innovation to address the need of micro-, small- and medium enterprises (MSMEs) for more capital to expand or develop new products.
While banks and lending institutions are required to allocate eight percent of their loan portfolio to micro and small enterprises, and two percent to medium enterprises. MSMEs continue to find it difficult to avail of loans from these institutions because of lack of acceptable collaterals, unstable income or cash flows, lack of business experience or track record and low paying capacity.
Rather than let the MSMEs resort to usurers and loan sharks whose schemes do not support the growth of the sector, the BSP developed the CSF as an alternative.
The CSF is a fund generated from contributions of well-capitalized and well-managed cooperatives with counterpart contributions from the provincial government and the national government’s Industrial Guaranty and Loan Fund (IGLF) equivalent to the amount raised by the former.
The fund pool will serve as security for the loans approved by the CSF Oversight Committee at present headed by Dr. Cerina Bolos, retired Bohol schools division superintendent who is now actively involved in a cooperative bank.
A BSP news release had said banks that will extend loans secured by the CSF can rediscount up to 80% of such loans with the BSP. As designed, CSF is to be managed and administered at the provincial level to make it more responsive to the credit needs of MSMEs in each province.
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