DMW, DTI to help OFWs start own business

Overseas Filipino workers (OWFs) and their families can now learn ample knowledge about kick-starting their own business in the Philippines through the programs initiated by the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) and Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

The agencies, which signed the business training and mentorship programs on National Migrant Workers Day on Wednesday, will teach OFWs financial literacy, entrepreneurial skills, as well as how to register their potential business.

This will also prevent OFWs from wasting their hard-earned money to scams.

“Kadalasan ‘yun ang naghihikayat sa mga OFWs na ilagay ‘yung pera nila, na papangakuan sila ng napakalaking interest,” DTI Secretary Alfredo Pascual said.

(Usually, OFWs are encouraged to invest their money when they are promised to get huge interest.)

Migrant Workers Secretary Susan Ople, meanwhile, said the initiative would help OFW-entrepreneurs and/or their families to stay together in the country while also providing jobs to others.

“Our OFWs contribute to our economy through their dollar remittances but at some point in their lives, they would also need to come home and create sustainable sources of income through entrepreneurship, sound investments or by landing a better job here at home,” she said.

OFWs or members of their families who successfully registered their business and underwent entrepreneurship training will get a certificate from the DTI as an endorsement to any livelihood or financial assistance to be granted by the DMW to OFW beneficiaries.

The DMW will also identify, evaluate, and submit a list of potential beneficiaries and applicants to existing DTI programs and services. — Giselle Ombay/RSJ, GMA Integrated News