DBP sets up credit facility for overseas Filipino workers

The state-owned Development Bank of the Philippines has set up a financing facility called the “OFW Reintegration Program” to provide loans and other financial products to overseas-based Filipinos.

The facility is aimed at pursuing the national government’s plan of providing income and investment opportunities to overseas-based Filipinos, with a medium- to long-term goal of encouraging them to eventually go back to the Philippines and stay with their families for good.

The facility offers credit to OFWs and their families to fund their business plans. The facility also offers financial products that will help the target market grow their assets.

“The DBP hopes that through the OFW Reintegration Program, we shall be able to help nurture in our overseas Filipino workers and their families a culture of savings, investment and entrepreneurship, along with the values of honesty, discipline and hard work necessary for poverty reduction and economic empowerment of our communities,” DBP president Francisco del Rosario Jr. said in a statement.

Those who can avail themselves of the DBP’s program are OFWs registered with the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA)—with ongoing or finished employment contracts.

DBP said these workers could apply for a loan equivalent to 80 percent of the cost of a business venture and must range from P300,000 to P2 million.

Loans from the facility carry an annual interest rate of 7.5 percent, reviewable every year and payable over seven years.

“Loans may be used for construction, renovation, expansion or repair of building for use as business site; working capital for business venture; acquisition of equipment; and other business-related purposes,” DBP said.

DBP said the facility would give priority to investments involving the following industries: franchising, tourism and related industries, health care and allied industries, and agribusiness and related businesses.

Imelda Nicolas, secretary of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO), earlier said the government, through the office she heads, has started drafting a road map that would create an environment that provides sufficient investment and income opportunities to OFWs and their families with the end goal of encouraging OFWs to go back home.

She said providing more income-generating opportunities within the country was necessary to allow migrants to go back home without worrying about the financial security of their families.