Gov’t urged to carve 20% from CCT for MSME growth

Exporters want the government to take 20 percent of the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program budget and allocate it instead to developing small businesses.

The Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. said in a statement a fifth of the cash program should be dedicated to the development of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).

According to Philexport president Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr., many MSMEs still find it difficult to comply with the collateral and repayment plan that banks usually require for a loan.

He said there should be an MSME funding approach “outside of the normal rules of the central bank,” as he pitched getting the money from the cash transfer program.

“CCT is just being given away. What we are saying is that they can lend and there [will] be some returns [and] that it will create a lot of employment,” he added.

Called the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), the government’s conditional cash transfer program has a budget of P89.8 billion for 2019, according to the Department of Budget and Management. A fifth, as suggested, would amount to a sizeable chunk of nearly P18 billion.

Implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), the 4Ps provides conditional cash grants to the poorest of the poor, in an effort to improve the health and education of children aged up to 18, according to the Official Gazette.

The World Bank, for its part, has lauded the program for playing a critical role in poverty reduction since its implementation in 2008.