Government rolls out loan program for franchise sector

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and its financing arm are set to launch a loan facility to support the franchise sector this month.

This was announced by Small Business (SB) Corp. president and CEO Robert Bastillo during the signing of the memorandum of agreement by the SB Corp., DTI and Philippine Franchise Association (PFA) to promote franchising as a tool to create businesses and jobs.

He said the  SB Corp. is ready to make available up to P1 billion for the loan facility for the franchise sector.

“In that launch, we will invite say 50 potential franchisees and we’ll go through a process in the same day to approve (loans),”he said.

He said the SB Corp.’s credit committee would be at the launch of the loan facility to deliberate on the applications for approval for the same day.

The SB Corp. will also launch other loan programs to support micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) this month.

Acting Trade Secretary Cristina Roque said the loan facility for the franchise sector was being made available as part of the agency’s push for MSME development.

“For us, being the DTI, we want to open to the MSMEs or to the Filipino people the different business opportunities that can be offered to them and one of them that has a high success rate is franchising,” she said.

PFA chairman Sam Christopher Lim said the loan facility would support the sector.

“We have some Filipinos who have the time, have the skill but are lacking in terms of capital and I think this is where SB Corp. will really help,” he said.

He said the PFA has been working with the DTI for almost 30 years and the partnership has helped the sector become the seventh largest franchise market in the world.

The partnership has also helped create two million jobs across the Philippines.

“And the beauty here is the jobs aren’t centralized in just urban centers. These are all over,”he said.

He said the partnership with the DTI has also allowed the PFA to create more global Filipino brands.