THE Small Business Corp. (SB Corp.) has released P32.77 million to micro, small and medium businesses affected by the Covid-19 pandemic in Central Visayas.
According to Francisco Buenavides, group head of the Visayas Group, the agency released the amount to 433 borrowers from the provinces of Cebu, Bohol, Negros Oriental and Siquijor.
“We received 922 applications, of which 696 were approved,” he said.
SB Corp. released P12.26 million to 123 borrowers in Cebu, P5.77 million to 77 borrowers in Bohol, P8.69 million to 122 borrowers in Negros Oriental and P6.05 million to 81 borrowers in Siquijor.
Buenavides said this is part of the Covid-19 Assistance to Restart Enterprises (Cares) Program of President Rodrigo Duterte.
Cares is for small businesses greatly affected and further marginalized by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Earlier, SB Corp. said the loan fund is open to micro and small enterprises with at least one year continuous operation prior to March 2020, and whose businesses suffered drastic reduction in sales during the pandemic.
Micro enterprises with asset size of not more than P3 million may borrow P10,000 up to P200,000 and small enterprises with asset size of not more than P10 million may borrow a higher loan amount that will not exceed P500,000.
The loan shall be used to help the enterprise stabilize or recover from its losses.
Buenavides said some of the applications were not approved because of lacking requirements; the business owner couldn’t be contacted at the time of business verification and some had adverse findings.
Cares 2
Moreover, SB Corp. is still rolling out the Cares 2 program where applications are done online at https://brs.sbgfc.org.ph.
The features of Cares 2 are the same as for Cares 1 with loan limit, zero interest rate, service fee, grace period and repayment term. The program also requires the same identification and business registration documents.
However, for ease of loan release as well as to reduce physical contact and minimize community transmission of Covid-19, loan applicants under Cares 2 with loan applications of more than P30,000 are required to have a bank account for their loan requests to be deposited.
The bank account should either be at the Land Bank of the Philippines or any PesoNet or InstaPay participating banks.
For loan applications P30,000 and below, electronic money accounts such as GCash and PayMaya may substitute for the bank account requirement. (JOB)