Citi microentrepreneurship awardees come together to learn from one another

MANILA, Philippines - After a successful decade, the Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards (CMA) held its first Alumni Networking Event at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to bring together its past winners and offer a venue to promote partnership. 

Funded by Citi Foundation and organized in partnership with the BSP, Citi Philippines, and the Microfinance Council of the Philippines Inc. (MCPI), the event gathered 16 former winners in a whole day session that served as a workshop on team building, networking, and entrepreneurship training.  

The activity was also part of a series of events that celebrated National Microfinance week, and as part of their participation in the celebration, the winners were invited to exhibit their products in store booths setup in the main assembly of the BSP.

Ed Jimenez, the central bank’s lead consultant on microfinance and financial inclusion led the CMA Alumni Networking Event.  He was joined by notable speakers such as ABS-CBN News Channel’s Salve Duplito; Mark Ruiz, co-founder and president of Microventures Inc.; and Anna Meloto-Wilk, president and co-Founder of Human Nature Inc.

“The CMA Alumni network activity provided a fitting venue for the winners to meet each other and explore possible business as well as personal relationships with each other,” said Jimenez.  He added:  “The alumni meeting also became a venue to listen to some ‘tips’ from well known and successful practitioners on the field of product design and branding, investment options and values needed to carry to be successful in the business realm.”

Citi Philippines’ Corporate Affairs director Aneth Lim co-hosted the event and welcomed the CMA alumni to the activity.

Addressing the participants, Lim said: “The success of any awards program ultimately comes down to the success of its awardees.  This is why Citi, together with MCPI and the BSP want to make sure that all of you continue to have access to the right tools and receive guidance to succeed and eventually become small and medium sized businesses that will grow and take this nation forward.”

The session kicked off with Jimenez leading a series of team building sessions that forced  the participants to network with each other while working on teamwork and problem solving skills.  Two of the 16 came from the Visayas and were affected in the aftermath of Typhoon Yolanda.  One suffered business losses while the other lost her home and livelihood.  However, both showed their winning spirit and actively participated.