Citi lends P1B to women entrepreneurship proponent

Credit support for low-income women entrepreneurs across the country got a boost as ASA Philippines Foundation obtained from Citi Philippines about P1 billion or $20 million funding for its microfinance projects.

ASA is a nonprofit, non-stock financial institution that serves over 2 million women entrepreneurs through more than 1,600 branches across 82 provinces in the Philippines. It also provides burial assistance, college or university scholarship programs, disaster relief assistance and rehabilitation, business development training and marketing support, medical missions, child feeding and out of school youth training for the families of beneficiaries.

The partnership with Citi is expected to help about 70,000 clients of the foundation.

“With the help of this funding, we will be able to achieve the next milestone of 2.5 million active borrowers,” ASA president and CEO Kamrul Tarafder said in a joint statement.

“By providing MalASAkit (interest-free) financing, this funding will allow us to assist clients’ businesses that were impacted by the pandemic and natural disasters,” Tarafder added.

Fernando Fleury, corporate bank head at Citi Philippines, said the American banking giant was committed to assist financially underserved women microentrepreneurs in the country.

“We have long been champions of financial inclusion and this transaction is aligned with Citi Social Finance’s mandate to expand access to jobs, basic infrastructure, and basic services among low-income communities in emerging markets,” Fleury said. INQ