By Monsi A. Serrano
Apart from advocating for Filipinos to be ‘penny wise’ and educate as many people as possible to be financially responsible, TALA also eyes to support the MSMEs, a plan that was revealed by Donald Evangelista, General Manager of Tala during the media breakfast held in Makati last October 28.
“We know the critical role of our MSMEs in the economic recovery and growth, since many of them were badly affected by the pandemic,” Evangelista said.
“Hence, providing loans for our MSMEs is in the pipeline. But to be clear, Tala has already been providing loans to some women to support a small home based business. And in the Philippines, with many entreprising Filipinos, the unique culture and setup makes it interesting, especailly in the growing numbers of entrepreneurs,” he added.
Already operating in Kenya, India, Mexico, and the Philippines, Evangalista is happy with the creditworthiness of the Filipino borrowers with more than 90% repayment rate and repeat customer rate.
“Tala wants to tap and grow the wider market in the Philippines and provide the loan. Part of that mission is to educate the borrowers to be financially responsible,” he said.
“So to anwer your question what are our plans for the MSMEs, there are so many plans, and Tala is is here to empower not just our underbanked customer, but also our entrepreneurs with our holistic financial ecosystem for the underserved communities, and soon for the Filipino entrepreneurs,” Evangelista concluded.