MORE than three thousand individual members of various cooperatives in Davao City benefited from the Cooperative Financial Assistance Program (CFAP) of the City Cooperative Development Office (CCDO) since its expansion of maximum loan capacity in 2015 from P50,000 to P300,000.
Cooperative Management and Development Division chief Ubaldo Nuñez said there are already 35 cooperatives that have availed of the CFAP with varying amount of loans from as low as P100,000 to as high as P300,000.
Most of these cooperatives used the loan for micro-lending businesses, livelihood programs for their members, and agricultural developments among others.
Nuñez said poultry, piggery, and banana plantations were among the top agricultural developments that these cooperatives spend their loaned money on.
Banana harvested by these cooperatives are usually those exported to other countries particularly Japan, just like a cooperative from the village of Sibulan regularly visiting CCDO for financial assistance to be used for their banana plantation.
In addition, CCDO makes sure that they prioritize financial help for smaller cooperatives owning micro, small, medium enterprises (MSMEs) particularly those with less than P15 million of total assets.
For 2017, CCDO submitted a budget proposal of P5 million for CFAP alone due to a higher number of loan applicants every year but only P4.2 million was approved.
Since January 2016 to January of this year, they have already released P6.2 million for CFAP alone.
Nuñez said they are planning to request supplementary budget for 2017 which they did twice last year with P2 million on-top budget given to them by the city. He also added with the higher maximum loan capacity, more cooperatives will be able to avail of the CFAP. However, with limited budget, they can only accommodate so much.
CFAP offers loan for zero percent interest and three years to pay. CCDO also requires post-dated checks for payment. Nuñez said it offers more security for the cooperatives and for CCDO in comparison to the cash payment before.
Currently, there is a 97 percent repayment performance that the office had recorded since last year.
For a cooperative to avail of CFAP, it must be a registered cooperative in Davao City existing for at least a year. They must also submit a comprehensive project proposal to where their loaned money would be used for.
