Heeding a call issued by President Arroyo in 2004 for more aggressive microfinance lending nationwide, the government, in partnership with private microfinance institutions, had extended more than P161 billion in loans to some 5.8 million Filipino microfinance clients and entrepreneurs from July 2004 to April this year, the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) announced recently.

Quoting a preliminary government report, NAPC Secretary Domingo F. Panganiban said thousands of non- government organizations, banks, and cooperatives had participated in a massive microfinance development program after President Arroyo had urged the Filipino microfinance sector to increase lending in order to generate more jobs for the poorest of the Filipino poor during her 2004 State of the Nation Address (SONA).

“The loans helped micro-entrepreneurs establish new business endeavors. These enterprises, in turn, created 2.7 million new jobs for impoverished Filipino workers nationwide during the same period,” Panganiban said during a special celebration marking the 11th founding anniversary of NAPC.

He noted the steady increase in microfinance loans since President Arroyo’s 2004 SONA.

“I think it is by now clear that the recent growth of the Filipino microfinance sector is due mainly to the leadership and vision of President Arroyo,” Panganiban said.

He said the Filipino microfinance sector had issued loans amounting to some P60.94 billion from July 2004 to December 2006.

“The sector released loans worth around P25.9 billion in 2007. The total amount released last year came to about P64.8 billion,” Panganiban said.

He said that from January to April this year alone, the government and its partner microfinance institutions had already extended loans estimated at some P9.7 billion.

Panganiban said NAPC and the People’s Credit and Finance Corporation (PCFC) manage the People’s Development Trust Fund (PDTF), which was established in 1998 to finance the development of microfinance institutions nationwide.