Photo collage from THEPHILBIZNEWS
By Alithea De Jesus
Cognizant of the many challenges that the agri-fishery and other agribusinesses face, the Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Credit Policy Council (DA-ACPC) partners with the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation’s (RCBC) DiskarTech: Kasosyo sa Asenso Project to make the DA-ACPC’s agri-fishery credit programs more convenient, efficient, and accessible for small farmers and fisherfolk (SFF) in the new normal.
As part of its efforts to innovate its programs and to adapt to the restrictions brought upon by community quarantine imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the DA-ACPC collaborated with the RCBC’s DiskarTech, which allows users to open digital deposit accounts without requiring an initial amount or maintaining balance, and features cardless ATM withdrawals, fund transfers and bills payment.
DA-ACPC’s Executive Director Jocelyn Alma R. Badiola and RCBC’s President and CEO Eugene S. Acevedo and EVP & Chief Innovations and Inclusion Officer Angelito M. Villanueva recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the joint venture. Said MOU involves the application of the RCBC’s DiskarTech to DA-ACPC’s credit ecosystems and its partner lending conduits, including but not limited to the digital processing of loan applications, the release of loan proceeds, and repayment of amortization through its bills payment system.
According to RCBC Executive Vice President and Chief Innovations and Inclusion Officer Lito Villanueva, “RCBC walks its talk in providing financial inclusion to all Filipinos. This is but the start of our engagement with our farmers and fisherfolk to bring enabling financial services right at the palm of their hands. This also supports the Bangko Sental ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) thrust in promoting the use of transactional accounts for key players such as the agriculture sector.”
For her part, ACPC Executive Director Jocelyn Alma Badiola said that “DA-ACPC is very much excited to partner with RCBC’s DiskarTech which is the country’s first Taglish all-in-one banking services mobile application. Our farmers and fisherfolk will find it user-friendly and easy to understand as it uses conversational language.”
“By partnering with a digital financial service provider such as RCBC’s DiskarTech, we are able to take progressive strides in providing credit during these challenging times particularly to the unbanked and hard to reach areas through our partner lending conduits. This is our way of embracing digital finance at the same time ensuring the financial inclusion of our small farmers and fisherfolk,” added Exec. Dir. Badiola.
Through the MOU, a roadmap for the development, testing and implementation of digital processes and back-end requirements will be done to ensure the efficient and effective operationalization of the alliance.
The DA-ACPC is currently implementing three credit programs for this year: the Expanded Survival and Recovery (SURE COVID-19), an emergency loan program for SFF and micro and small enterprises (MSEs) whose incomes and enterprises were adversely affected by the community quarantine; the Kapital Access for Young Agripreneurs (KAYA), a working capital and/or different types of machinery and equipment acquisition loan program of start-up or existing agri-fishery-based projects of young entrepreneurs and agri-fishery graduates of formal or non-formal agri-fishery schooling; and the Agri-Negosyo (ANYO), a loan program to finance the capital requirements for production, processing, marketing, acquisition of machinery or equipment, and construction of facilities of individuals, farmer and fisherfolk organizations/associations, and MSEs that are engaged in agri-fishery projects.