Landbank lent record P434B in 1st quarter

The state-owned Land Bank of the Philippines made available a record-high P434.4 billion in loans to small farmers, fishers and other priority borrowers in the first quarter of 2017.

Landbank said the figure meant an increase of 12 percent year-on-year from P387.4 billion in the same period of 2016.

“Landbank remains focused on efforts toward fulfilling its mandate to serve small farmers and fishers and other marginalized sectors, especially in the countryside,” Landbank president and chief executive Alex V. Buenaventura said.

“We are also taking an active role in the implementation of the national government’s development agenda, particularly programs that promote financial inclusion, job generation and countryside development at large,” he said.

Landbank’s priority borrowers include small farmers and fishers; micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs); agri-aqua projects of local government units (LGUs) and state-run firms, and national government projects.

For small farmers and fishers, Landbank lending reached P34.6 billion, rising 7.4 percent from P32.2 billion a year ago. Of this, Landbank said it has released a total of P8.7 billion to 102,322 small farmers and fishers nationwide. The loans were channeled through 484 farmers and fishers cooperatives, 57 countryside financial institutions and 65 irrigators’ associations.

For agribusinesses, aqua businesses and related projects of LGUs, Landbank provided P111.5 billion or an increase of 11 percent from P100.9 billion.

The biggest share of priority loans granted in the first quarter went to national government projects, which jumped 13 percent to P288.3 billion from P254.3 billion.

These included P59.6 billion in loans to MSMEs, of which P7.2 billion was lent to microenterprises while P52.4 billion supported small and medium enterprises.