More Pinoys join microfinance - ADB Report

More Pinoys join microfinance

THE NUMBER of active microfinance clients in the Philippines
increased between 2006 and 2008 following the implementation
of a project by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), a report
released yesterday by the multilateral lending agency showed.
The ADB reported that microfinance clients increased by
129.17% to 5.5 million in December 2008, from 2.4 million in
December 2006.

ADB said its $150-million Microfinance Development Program
(MDP), approved on Nov. 22, 2005, helped create a “sound
and market-oriented microfinance sector development path”
for the Philippines.

The project had the goal of helping the Philippine government
in addressing weaknesses in the microfinance sector and help
poor Filipinos access quality financial services.“The objective of
the MDP was to improve household incomes, reduce poverty
and reduce the vulnerability of the poor,” ADB said in the report.

Microfinance is the provision of financial services to lowincome
clients who traditionally lack access to typical banking and
related services.

Microfinance is also the idea that low-income individuals
are capable of lifting themselves out of poverty if given access to
financial services.

The National Credit Council, under the Finance department,
served as the borrower and executing agency for the loan.
Aside from increasing the number of Filipinos who access
microfinance services, the bank said MDP also helped in creating
a total of 2.6 million jobs during the period of its implementation,
along with the increase in the amount of microfinance and in
the number of loan releases.

The ADB report added that performance standards of microfinance
institutions in terms of portfolio quality, efficiency, sustainability outreach ratings
and continued monitoring were also achieved, along with easy
financial transactions through electronic banking and appropriate
rural saving schemes that increased the clients’ savings
mobilization.

“The MDP enhanced the enabling and regulatory environment
as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas formulated rules
and regulations to promote microfinance operations by
banks, allowing microfinance-oriented banks to open branches
anywhere in the country, and promoting electronic banking
with consumer protection, particularly for savings mobilization,”
ADB said.

It added that the Securities and Exchange Commission managed
to comply with the program’s required policy action
of compelling microfinance-oriented non-government organizations
to be transparent and observe full disclosure in their
operations.

Assessing the MDP overall, the multilateral financial institution
said it was “successful” in achieving its objectives with its
high efficiency and likely sustainability.

Finance officials were not immediately available for comment
as of yesterday. — Jo Javan Cerda

From the Business World Online

--
---------------------------------------------
CARLOS ANI - SEEDFINANCE Corporation - http://www.seedfinance.net
Email: carlosani@seedfinance.net
Landline: +63495010127 Cellphone: +639152919580
DEVJOBS - http://www.devjobsmail.com
PHILDEVFINANCE - http://phildevfinance.posterous.com http://phildevfinance.wordpress.com
CONSULTING - http://www.carlosani.com
My Clippings - http://www.myclipps.posterous.com
------------------------------------------