Jollibee Group’s social development arm, Jollibee Group Foundation (JGF), partnered with BanKo, the micro-finance arm of the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), to launch a financing program that provides farmers under JGF’s Farmer Entrepreneurship Program (FEP) access to a low-interest loan product.
FEP is a comprehensive agro-entrepreneurship initiative that helps sharpen the technical skills and business acumen of farmers through training, mentorships, and technical and financial aids. FEP also links farmers to institutional markets, such as Jollibee, Greenwich, Chowking, and Mang Inasal, for increased and steady income.
“Our partnership with BanKo addresses the crucial need of our farmers to have access to loan products that will enable them to sustain and grow further their farming businesses,” said Gisela Tiongson, JGF President.
Since the inception of FEP, JGF has been partnering with different microfinance institutions that serve as local implementing partners on the ground. As such, these institutions get to directly engage with FEP farmers, with some availing of the financial services and products of such institutions. This partnership with BanKo further increases FEP farmers’ financial and investment choices so they can access other inputs they need to further increase crop yields and income.
Tiongson explained that the experiences of farmer groups who are part of FEP show that despite having a stable buyerand partners, access to formal financing institutions is still uneven, and access to loans with low interest rates is limited.
“In the mid- to long-term, this challenge could constrain the ability of farmer groups to expand and sustain their enterprises. Without access to formal financing institutions, they often resort to borrowing from informal financial providers who require higher interest rates,” Tiongson said.
“Formal financial institutions often consider agriculture ventures as high-risk investments since they are vulnerable to natural calamities,” explained Rod Mabiasen, BanKo Business Head of Financial Inclusion and Microfinance Solutions. “But we, at BanKo, are strongly committed to our mandate of providing accessible and affordable banking to more Filipinos.
We recognize that farmers play a very crucial role in growing our economy and promoting food security.This partnership with JGF enables us to help overcome the barriers to agricultural financing.”
JGF’s partnership with BanKo is the first program specifically designed to provide low-interest loan financing options to FEP partners to help them meet their working capital needs for various business expenses such as paying farm labor, renting agricultural equipment, transporting goods to the market, purchasing farm input, and making ends meet during low seasons, thereby improving their agricultural production.
“Under this program, the interest rates offered to FEP farmers are lower than the market rateand the farmers are only able to avail of it through a shared responsibility scheme.
That is, each farmer has to put in his or her share to guarantee the low rate for the whole group to help foster genuine and inclusive progress within these communities,” added Tiongson.
The pilot phase of this program covers beneficiaries from onion farmer cooperatives of the Kalasag Multipurpose Cooperative and Onion and Vegetable Producers Cooperative (both from San Jose City, Nueva Ecija), and Alcala Onion Rice Corn Growers Multi-Purpose Cooperative (Alcala, Pangasinan).
