Loans granted to micro, small and medium enterprises reached P13.6 billion, benefitting an estimated 8,500 beneficiaries as of Jan. 31, Small Business Corp. said Wednesday.
SB Corp. spokesperson Ryan Lazo said applicants for financial assistance reached 16,000, but only a third or about 5,200 MSMEs were approved. More than 3,200 are still being processed while 6,000 applications were denied or disapproved.
“As of January 31 this year, loans that have been funded by Bayanihan CARES and RISE UP programs have reached P8.2 billion, while loans released under the P3 [Pondo sa Pagbabago at Pag-asenso] program was now at P3 billion for the wholesale lending program and P2.2 for retail,” he said.
Bayanihan CARES is an interest-free and collateral-free financing program that aims to assist MSMEs to recover from the adverse effects of the pandemic.
The borrower MSMEs will only need to pay a one-time service fee, which is set at a maximum of 8 percent for a 4-year loan term. Meanwhile, RISE UP Multi-purpose loan caters multi-sectoral MSMEs including existing SBCorp borrowers.
The program is available to businesses that are operating for at least one year with maximum loanable amount of P5 million, while Resilient Innovative Sustainable Enterprises Unleash Your Power (RISE UP) program is a lending scheme that aims to sustain the gains of MSMEs that have survived the past two years of crisis, by providing multi-purpose loans that have soft terms and can be easily accessed.
SBCorp in partnership with the Department of Tourism also implements a loan program for tourism enterprises also known as the CARES for TRAVEL.