AMID stiff competition among microfinance institutions in the country, the microfinance program of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (Rafi) is positioning itself as the “preferred choice” of potential clients in the Visayas.

The Cebu Micro Enterprise Development Foundation Inc. (CMEDFI) wants to upgrade its products and services and offer its clients perks that other lending institutions could not give. CMEDFI is a non-stock, non-profit organization.

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Ma. Theresa Catipay, CMEDFI executive director, said they have been affected by the competition such that a few of their clients have dropped out of their program and transferred to other microfinance institutions.

In Lapu-Lapu City alone, it has around 27 competitors, including rural banks, microfinance companies, and informal lenders.

With CMEDFI belonging to Rafi, which is a non-stock, non-profit foundation that implements many community projects, the microfinance program is thinking of tying up with other programs of the foundation.

As an example, Catipay cited that Rafi’s Eduardo J. Aboitiz Cancer Center could be a partner and offer free check-ups to active CMEDFI clients who will be given health cards.

“We are now in the planning stage. We have conducted many studies to understand the environment we are in. After more than ten years (of operations), we have gone full circle and it's time to upgrade our products, services, policies, and procedures,” she said.

“As long as we are creative, we can do a lot of things even though we are a small (microfinance institution). While competition abounds, we want to focus on giving the marginalized sector access to working capital and addressing the problem of poverty,” she added.

One study is the client satisfaction survey through which CMEDFI learned that representatives of other lending companies would not go home until their clients have paid during collection day.

Customer-friendly

“Our clients like us. CMEDFI is known to be strict and serious but our approach to our clients is humane and customer-friendly,” Catipay said.

The microfinance program gives clients who could not pay a strict three-day grace period from the deadline of payment

Next year, CMEDFI is planning to provide various livelihood training so that clients can diversify their business. A sari-sari store owner, for instance, can venture into hog raising at the same time so that if one business fails, she can work on the other.

This will be an addition to the regular seminars on business and personal growth, weekly meetings, and giving out of citations to best clients and groups.

CMEDFI was established in 1998. It offers non-collateral character-based loans to moderately poor women.

These women who will undergo a tedious process to become a CMEDFI client must have the technical skills to run a business and must belong to family with a monthly household income of around P5,000 to P12,000.

CMEDFI has nine branches in Cebu—Cebu City, Naga City, Toledo City, Argao, Liloan, Bogo City, Bantayan, Camotes and Barili. It has two branches in Bohol and three in Leyte.

Since it started, it has already served more than 15,000 clients. They are engaged in trading, sari-sari store, garments manufacturing, and hog raising, among others.