GTZ strengthens advocacy for small biz credit access

The German Development Cooperation (GTZ) through its project Small and Medium Enterprise Development for Sustainable Employment Program (Smedsep) has strengthened its advocacy in convincing rural bank institutions to provide credits to small business players.

Some 70 rural banks from Central Luzon, Panay and Negros have participated in the recently concluded SME Finance Appreciation Workshop dubbed “Enhancing SME Access to Credit, Building a Profitable SME Lending Business.”

Smedsep in partnership with the University of the Philippines Institute for Small Scale Industries (UP ISSI) launched this road show to convey the message to rural banks that lending to SME sector is a profitable business.

Providing bankers the right SME lending approach, experts from rural banking experts from Germany introduced the Creation of Competence for Competition (C3), an SME finance training package.

C3 is an international best practice training developed by GFA Consulting Group (Germany). The package is composed of five courses, namely credit appraisal and monitoring, SME finance for bank executives, credit and risk management, SME strategy and marketing and credit pricing.

This program teaches bankers in terms of cash flow based approached to SME lending. All five courses had been implemented successfully in the Visayas during the first two years of Smedsep implementation.

UP ISSI is the training partner of Smedsep in the Philippines. GFA on the other hand, has already trained Filipino trainers who are now ready to implement C3 courses to more rural banks and thrift banks.

In a press statement, Smedsep announced that during the road show, UP ISSI will be conducting a 10-day SME Credit Appraisal training on November 12 to 23 this year in Iloilo, December 3 to 14 in Bacolod and in January and February next year in Manila. The other training courses will be held also early next year.

Smedsep, a development cooperation project between the Philippines and the Federal Republic of Germany, aims to improve the Business and Investment Climate for SMEs in the Philippines, especially in the Visayas.

It contributes efforts of the Philippine government in improving the framework conditions for private sector development in the country.

GTZ is an international cooperation enterprise for sustainable development with worldwide operations owned by the German government.

For over 30 years, GTZ supports complex reform and change processes, often working under difficult conditions. Its major approach to promote change is developing the capabilities of partner organizations and people.

Supporting this initiative are the Small Business Corporation (SBC), the Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines (RBAP), and the Chamber of Thrift Banks (CTB).

Other SMEDSEP initiatives include harmonization of local SMED plans, LGU streamlining of business licensing procedures, business development services, training of SME workforce and Local and Regional Economic Development (LRED).