ILIGAN CITY (PIA) – Fifteen micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) from Lanao del Norte whose businesses were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic received loan assistance from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) through the Small Business Corporation (SB Corp.).
A ceremonial signing of the loan release was held on July 24, 2020, this city.
The beneficiaries are awarded with loan assistance ranging from P30,000 to P300,000. The financial assistance can be used to update loan amortization for vehicle loans or other fixed asset loans of the business, replace inventory for perishable stocks damaged, or as a working capital replacement to restart the business.
The 15 MSMEs are the initially approved beneficiaries from the 170 applications received in Lanao del Norte under the Pondo sa Pagbabago at Pag-asenso COVID – 19 Assistance to Restart Enterprises (P3 CARES) program with a total amount of P1,780,000.
It is the government’s economic relief program for micro and small enterprises affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Filipino-owned micro or small enterprises with at least one year of business operations before March 16, 2020 and with asset size of not more than P15 million can avail of the program and may be granted with loan assistance of P10,000 to P200,000 for enterprises with an asset size of not more than P3 million, and not more than P500,000 for enterprises with an asset size of not more than P15 million.
Rhodelia Sojor of Emrys Industries, one of the beneficiaries, said she will use the financial assistance as seed money to reboot her establishment. “I will be using it to upgrade my online presence and ability to accept online payments and credit payments, pay the remaining balance of my accounts payable on the credit extended by my suppliers for materials they sent me out of trust and without any post-dated checks, and pay for labor in producing more products I can sell online using the materials inventory I have.”
“I truly appreciate the DTI and SB Corp. family for their collective effort in helping each other rise above personal grief and challenges so we would have the timely release of this CARES program,” Sojor added.
Another beneficiary, Rexaniel Saburnido of Pater Al Kuwait Foods Corp., shared that he will use 50% of the financial assistance to buy raw materials and the other 50% as buffer funds in case of urgent payables.
“It somehow eases the burden and allows me to strategically position my business to successfully attain our goals despite the pandemic,” Saburnido added.
He also expressed his gratitude to DTI for the support received in his business journey. “Thank you for not giving up on us. To SB Corp thank you so much for extending your help to us. Thank you for the hope that you share and for being our wall to lean on in this trying times.” (DTI-10/PIA ICIC)
