The Small Business Corporation (SBCorp), the lending arm of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), continues to provide financial assistance to affected micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), cooperatives, hospitals, tourism business, and repatriated or displaced Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) by the COVID-19 pandemic under the Bayanihan CARES (COVID-19 Assistance to Restart Enterprises).

Bayanihan CARES was launched in October 2020 with PhP 8.08 billion funds thru equity infusion was allocated to SBCorp under the Bayanihan 2 Act. This is an interest-free and collateral-free financing program wherein the borrower MSMEs will only need to pay a one-time service fee, which is set at a maximum of eight (8) percent for a 4-year loan term.

To date, SBCorp has approved 31,700 MSME loan applications and released a total loan amount of PhP4.84 billion.

SBCorp. President Cacanando remarked “SBCorp operates on the principle that we should not duplicate what the mainstream players in MSME finance are already doing and we do not compete with what is already working in the market. What we need to do is fill in the gaps for small businesses that banks and lending companies do not yet find attractive to finance relative to their profit objectives and cost management thresholds. We develop and operate our financing programs for MSMEs along these lines.” said Ms. Luna Cancanando, SBCorp President.

For more information on the Bayanihan CARES program, please visit https://brs.sbcorp.ph/. JMCA