DTI, DBP, mobile wallets to ink pact for sari-sari store owners, vendors loan

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is partnering with state-owned Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) as well as leading fintech firms GCash and Maya to establish a loan financing product for sari-sari store owners and market vendors which can be availed through mobile wallet applications.

This development was disclosed by Trade Secretary Ma. Cristina Roque at the sidelines of the Asia CEO Forum in Pasay City on Thursday.

“We’re going to be launching a partnership between the DTI and the DBP so that the sari-sari stores and palengke [vendors] can also loan through using GCash, Maya… a quicker way to [access financing] using digital platforms,” Roque said.

The Trade chief said the DTI and the DBP will be earmarking an initial P500 million for the loan financing program for the micro entrepreneurs.

She said the memorandum of understanding (MOU) to establish the initiative will be signed “within the month or maybe first week of April, but definitely soon.”

The program will be pilot-launched in Cebu, “because that’s where the number of sari-sari stores are larger.”

Roque said the DTI aims to ease access to loan financing products to sari-store owners and vendors.

“We’ve been going to the palengke and we’ve really checked what the needs of these people are. Ang pinaka important na need nila is really financing,” she said.

“Through Gcash, Maya, it’d be so much easier for them,” she added.

The Trade chief said the upcoming loan program for micro entrepreneurs is in line with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s directive to boost digitalization in the country.—AOL, GMA Integrated News