Poor borrowers have accessed P1 B from microfinancing

DAVAO CITY – Some P1 billion in small loans have been extended so far by various microfinancing outlets in Mindanao in the last four years, but the current global crisis has stymied aggressiveness from successful borrowers.

Jeffrey Ordonez, executive director of the Mindanao Microfinance Council (MMC), said that the money represented the aggregate figure for the borrowers whose number already reached 600,000 across Mindanao.

“The money has been extended by rural banks, cooperatives and even nongovernment organizations “which have institutionalized their social development objective,” he told the regular Monday press conference of the Davao Press Club.

Microfinance involved borrowings of not more than P150,000 per borrower but Ordonez said that the average borrowing would only be between P10,000 and P25,000.

“Our borrowers are the poorest. They are market vendors, or those who engage in small selling and trading,” he said.

He said that micro-borrowers appeared to have managed well their loans “that repayment is very high among them, from 95 percent to 100 percent”.

The global financial turmoil has also sent many of their borrowers in uncertainty on whether or not to expand their operations, “which we have encouraged them”.

He said that the hesitance of existing and probable borrowers also forced the MMC to stretch its target of reaching out to one million borrowers, from 2010 to 2013.

“This year, we have to make adjustments in our projects,” he said, “offering small finance projects and encouraging those successful borrowers to pursue their plans of expanding their operations.”

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