Land Bank approves P108 million for 177 OFW beneficiaries

Labor chief Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz said 167 loan applications of 177 overseas Filipino worker (OFW) beneficiaries amounting to P108,054,000.00 have been approved by the Land Bank of the Philippines in 2011 under the government’s PhP2-billion National Reintegration Program.

“The various OFW businesses funded by the loans created 636 jobs,” Baldoz said, according to a Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) press release.

Citing a year-end report of the National Reintegration Center for OFWs (NRCO), Baldoz said most of the borrowers were from the Middle East, 68 from Saudi Arabia. Majority are male, 125; 52 are female.

She also said OFWs from the CALABARZON region, Region 4-A, topped the list of borrowers, with P27.65 million; followed by Region 3, P19.863 million; Region 1, P11.8 million; Region 5, P9.27 million; Region 2, P6.9 million; Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), P6.1 million; and Region 7, P5.09 million.

The rest of the regions have OFWs borrowing over P1 million, while there were no borrowers from Region 12, CARAGA and the ARMM.

According to the report, 40.55% of the loans released were for OFW borrower-beneficiaries who are into trading, while 22.22% were into agri-business.

Trading ventures include grains, general merchandise, farm and agricultural inputs, textile, construction and auto-supply. On the other hand, agri-businesses involve animal raising, fish production, vegetable growing and cut flower production.

The P2-Billion National Reintegration Loan Fund is a low-interest, collateral-free, and no-conduit loan offered by the government to returning OFWs who would like to go into business or who already have existing business undertakings.

The loan is managed by the Land Bank of the Philippines and Development Bank of the Philippines. It carries an annual rate of 7.5% in declining balance with a flexible payment scheme maximum of five years to pay and an incentive grace period of two years. A borrower can borrow a maximum of P2 million.

The labor chief instructed the National Wages and Productivity Commission, headed by Executive Director Ciriaco Lagunzad Jr, to already establish within this month in-house teams in the DOLE regions that will continue to assist the beneficiaries of the National Reintegration Program after they have borrowed money to finance their businesses.

“This is the first time that the DOLE is viewing the National Reintegration Program in the longer term. I want the OFW loan beneficiaries to be assured that the DOLE is still there to provide them assistance after they have received their loans,” she said.

The assistance, Baldoz said, may range from helping the beneficiaries obtain business permits from other government agencies, such as the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), to providing marketing support, product design and packaging services, productivity strategies, and business referrals.

Image from Microsoft Office website.