P5M set aside for student ventures

Monday, February 13, 2012

A GOVERNMENT-OWNED bank has set aside P5 million to fund business proposals of student entrepreneurs of two universities in Cebu.

State-owned Development Bank of the Philippines has identified the two schools as pilot testing centers of the project that is part of its push to support small and medium enterprise (SME) development in the country.

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Student entrepreneurs of the University of San Jose Recoletos (USJ-R) and University of San Carlos will receive funding from DBP through its Industrial Guarantee Loan Fund- Student Assistance Grant for Entrepreneurship (IGLF-SAGE) program.

IGLF-SAGE is program intended to encourage student entrepreneurs to come up with sustainable and innovative businesses. The program aims to support selected business proposals of students enrolled in the entrepreneurship program of the two universities.

Potential to succeed

According to DBP senior vice president B. Brillo Reynes, the program is meant to push entrepreneurship and SME development in the country.

“We are starting off with tapping the academe and looking for business projects that really have potential to succeed,” Reynes said.

The funding is also meant to help graduating student-entrepreneurs who have difficulty raising capital to start their ventures.

USC-Department of Business Administration chairperson Grace Marie Lape said DBP will shoulder 60 percent of the required business capital.

The IGLF-SAGE program offered in USC and USJ-R is the first in the Philippines,
officials said.

Yesterday, the two universities signed a memorandum of agreement with IGLF-SAGE and National Economic Development Authority (Neda) as partner government agency.

Reynes said they hope to replicate the program in other universities across the country.

“Instead of looking for jobs after graduation, students are encouraged to pursue what they have started in school with the funding support from the DBP,” Lape said.

The IGLF-SAGE program is for three years.

Neda Director Cayetano Paderanga Jr. praised the efforts of the academe and the DBP in promoting entrepreneurship in the country.

Lack of funding

“IGLF-SAGE is one of the programs formulated by DBP in trying to grow the SME sector in the country. This will help students set up their own enterprises, which will eventually grow and become strong pillars in the industry,” Paderanga said.

Paderanga said the lack of funding is one factor that hampers growth of micro-enterprises.

“It is the government’s attempt through the IGLF to help bring about a strong SME system in the country and aid the expansion of the sector,” he said.

Paderanga said the IGLF has total assets of P7 billion.

IGLF is a government program that seeks financing for micro, small and medium enterprises.