Days of loan sharks numbered, says DTI

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said that it had already ironed out the guidelines for the government’s implementation of Pondo sa Pagbabago at Pag-asenso (P3), a financing program that is expected to put loan sharks out of business.

However, the DTI did not give a timetable for the public release of the guidelines, although the program was already launched in Leyte, Occidental Mindoro and Sarangani in January.

P3 is a P1-billion financing program intended to give micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises better access to finance and to reduce their cost of borrowing, with the government prioritizing the country’s 30 poorest provinces.

“As funds for the Pondo sa Pagbabago at Pag-asenso (P3) expected to be released anytime soon, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and its microfinancing arm Small Business Corporation (SB Corp) have ironed out the guidelines of its implementation that will help microentrepreneurs throughout the country,” DTI said in a statement.

If successful, the project is expected to expand and be able to loan P1 billion for every region in the country.

DTI said that the fund for the program would come from the Office of the President and would be coursed through SB Corp., which would then accredit partner institutions such as nonbank MFIs, cooperatives and associations to serve as conduit for the P3 funds.

DTI said the program would require minimal documentation requirement, a one-day processing of application and a low interest at 2.5 percent a month as the collection for the payment might be done on a weekly or daily basis.