KAPEHAN

Freeing Small Vendors From 5-6 Usurers!
With the latest Statistics showing an increase in the Poverty Rate in North Cotabato from 29% to 36%, I have prepared interventions which would be felt by the poor immediately.
One of these interventions is the Emancipation Program For Small Vendors and Entrepreneurs (EPSVE) which aims to free struggling families from the shackles of usurers.
In all of the years that I spent in government, financial support for small vendors had always been a weak area of government.
Indeed, there had been attempts to introduce Credit but the rigorous requirements actually made it difficult for the poor families to access the program.
On top of that, most of these credit programs were coursed through Credit Cooperatives which in turn impose high interest rates defeating the purpose of helping the poor vendors.
In the EPSVE which I designed, struggling small vendors and entrepreneurs who are in deep debt from financiers and usurers will first be required to undergo a financial literacy and management training.
After this, a team of business advisers will provide the small vendors options on what income earning venture he or she could get into.
When this is done, he or she will be granted a modest amount which will first settle her payables from the financiers or usurers and an additional amount to start a business with Zero interest.
I expect the benefits of this program to be felt by the poor struggling families immediately.
This is also expected to bring down prices of basic commodities in the market where most of the vendors borrow money from lending companies and usurers.
At an average P50,000, the program will target an initial 2,000 struggling small vendors for a total loan program of P100-M.
That means 2,000 families immediately freed from the shackles of usury and from poverty.
#GovernanceIsCommonSense!
#KungGustoMaramingParaan!