UCPB expands microlending program

The United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) has expanded its microfinance lending program by infusing P50 million in coconut farming areas.

The UCPB said that P50 million is in addition to the P16.1 million in loans already extended to a pilot area in 31 barangays in the Southern Leyte towns of Sogod, Libangon and Bontoc.

Under the so-called Buklod Unlad microfinance lending program, the 2,646 micro-entrepreneurs registered a 100-percent repayment rate in the 15-month test run from June 2001 to September 2002 period. The UCPB-CIIF Finance and Development Corp., the bank’s social lending arm, is the implementing entity of Bukod Unlad.

"With the excellent results we got in Leyte, we are now looking at implementing the program in other coconut areas," UCPB-CIF Finance president Edgardo Amistad said in a press statement.

Amistad said that the ultimate goal is to help coconut farmers uplift their living condition by transforming them into two-income families.

Under the program, the lending arm organizes wives or other immediate member of the coconut farmer’s family into groups of five to seven people, and then provides these groups with certain basic training sessions intended to enhance credit discipline. Only after completing the sessions can the beneficiaries access credit.

Credit is thus made available in gradually increasing amounts so that over time the beneficiaries learn and appreciate the value of the proper use of credit. – Ted Torres