THE first micro-finance bank in Pangasinan will open sometime next month, according to Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. who contributed part of his Countrywide Development Fund as initial capitalization of the bank.
De Venecia told newsmen that the 1st Pangasinan Micro-finance Bank to be led by Jose Oviedo will have an initial capitalization of P17.5 million.

To be based in Dagupan City, it will be patterned after the successful Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, for which de Venecia’s friend Muhammad Yunus, founder, was recently awarded a Nobel Peace Prize.

Grameen Bank has 6.61 million borrowers, 97 percent of whom are women. Of the total loan that it extended, repayment was at a high 98.5 percent.

De Venecia said the catholic cooperative of Dagupan, which Oviedo heads, is contributing P1 million to boost the micro-finance bank’s capitalization.

The micro-finance bank will include more than 3,000 shareholders from Dagupan City, Mangaldan, San Jacinto, Manaoag, San Fabian, including those from eastern and western Pangasinan.

The bank will produce loans to small borrowers, such as market vendors, jeepney and tricycle drivers, fishermen and farmers.

All of them need not go to loan sharks anymore for them to secure capitalization of their small business, de Venecia said.

De Venecia urged other congressmen of the country to set aside part of their CDFs to put up similar micro-finance banks to allow the poor to become small-time entrepreneurs instead of being idle in their homes. (PNA)