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Saturday, October 23, 2004
Credit union urges savings for coops
By Stephen Capillas
SAVINGS-based growth and fiscal discipline are essential for the survival and development of credit unions in Region 10 and the rest of Mindanao.
Program Director Luis Sasuman of the World Council for Credit Unions-Credit Union Empowerment and Strengthening (Woccu-Cues) Project-Philippines reiterated this anew in Friday's Media-Konek program of the Cagayan de Oro Press Club (COPC).
The press conference was graced by representatives from the First Community Cooperative (Ficco), Oro Savings and Sharing Cooperative and Buklod Multi-Purpose Cooperative as well as Woccu-Cues officers.
Sasuman said a savings based and not shares based driven growth is crucial for credit unions to augment their growth and added they should reduce their dependence on external sources of funds.
"The sources of funds should be internal or from the members themselves. It should go directly to the members and paid back by the members," he said.
Sasuman said their program, which entered its second phase last 2002 mostly, consists of extending micro-financing and management technology and instituting financial discipline among its member cooperatives.
Financial discipline includes improving collection efficiency Sasuman said even as he emphasized that interest rates for coop loans remain lower than banking and other finance institutions.
He said the program aims to enable member coops to meet international credit union standards.
The Woccu-Cues program covers 29 cooperatives in Mindanao with 14 in Northern Mindanao, Caraga and the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (Armm) regions.
Several cooperative officials attested to the effectivity of the program with Oro Savings and Sharing Cooperative manager Rolando Mesias saying it helped reduce collection delinquency from 42 percent to 10 percent.
Ficco Manager Vicente Rama said their collection delinquency was reduced by the program from 80 percent to 11 percent while Buklod Multi-Purpose Cooperative chairperson Erlinda Ola-Casan said their collection delinquency went down from 45 percent to 10 percent.
The activity is one of several lined up in commemoration of International Credit Union Day yesterday which carried the theme "Credit Unions: Dream..Belong..Achieve."
Sasuman said in particular the celebration of the event in Mindanao also carried with it the goal of "Safety, Stability and Sustainable Growth" among the credit union members.
(October 23, 2004 issue)
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