CH offers lot for incubation facility

A 2,000-square-meter lot at the South Road Properties (SRP) will be set aside for an incubation facility for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which will also be given access to formal lending facilities.

Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña told SME owners and cooperatives yesterday that the City is willing to assist them in their ventures so they can help improve the local economy.

Click here for Election 2010 updates

The City allocated P10 million last year as its counterpart in the Credit Surety Fund (CSF), a fund put up by participating cooperatives, nongovernment organizations and local government units (LGUs) to pay banks in case a member-borrower defaults on a loan.

Through the credit program spearheaded by the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), SMEs can now apply for business loans from commercial banks.

During a briefing with stakeholders yesterday, the mayor told them that the City will take an extra step by providing the lot for an incubation facility that will be open to owners who are just starting their businesses.

The City will begin discussions with the Development Bank of the Philippines.

City Administrator Francisco Fernandez said that in the city alone, members of participating NGOs and Metro Cebu Coopreneurs, a group of accredited cooperatives, are now entitled to guarantee loans amounting to P120 million.

“Our guarantee serves as the collateral of SMEs when they go to the banks. In Cebu City, we have come up not just with funding but on the initiative of the mayor, we will also open an incubation facility that will provide legal and technical advice and bookkeeping services for businesses that are just starting, until mudako sila,” he said.

He told reporters that several NGOs, cooperatives, the Development Bank of the Philippines and the Landbank of the Philippines are committed to support the project.