Loans for COVID-19 hit small businesses hit over P1.3 billion

MANILA, Philippines — Loan applications approved under a program to help micro and small enterprises weather the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic have reached over P1.3 billion, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said.

Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said 17,170 loan applications amounting to P1.37 billion have been approved under the COVID-19 Assistance to Restart Enterprises (CARES) program being administered by DTI’s financing arm Small Business (SB) Corp. as of Sept. 3.

So far, 24,203 loan applications worth P3.76 billion have been received for the CARES program.

SB Corp. reopened the CARES program for loan applications last Aug.17 after Lopez said additional funding worth P1 billion was obtained from the Development Bank of the Philippines and Land Bank of the Philippines.

The financing agency had to temporarily suspend accepting applications as the total loan requested reached over P3.5 billion, higher than the P1 billion allocated for the CARES program.

As the Bayanihan 2 bill has a provision allocating P10 billion worth of additional funding for SB Corp.’s CARES program and other lending programs for micro, small and medium enterprises, cooperatives, hospitals, tourism industry and overseas Filipino workers affected by the COVID-19 crisis, Lopez said the DTI is continuing the processing of loan applications.

Microenterprises with assets worth P3 million and below can borrow from P10,000 up to P200,000 under the CARES program, while small enterprises with assets not exceeding P15 million can avail of loans worth up to P500,000.

Under the program, borrowed funds have a zero interest rate, but a six percent service fee would need to be paid for 18-month term loans, and eight percent for 30-month term loans.