The Cebu CFI Community Cooperative is reaching out to more entrepreneurs in Luzon to offer loans and investments. Founded in 1970 by Judge Esperanza Garcia in Cebu City’s Capitol Compound, Cebu CFI members have increased to over 160,000 nationwide.

Initially, it had only 25 members from the staff of Cebu’s Court of First Instance, or CFI. The cooperative recently attracted 45 more members during DAILY TRIBUNE’s fifth Asian Innovation Forum, or AIF, held in Barangay Cupang, Muntinlupa City, on Tuesday.

The AIF allows leaders from the government and private firms to share insights on digital trends with entrepreneurs so they can grow their businesses.

Cebu CFI offers franchises for Five Star Manok, initially sold in Thailand. 

“The market there is already saturated. We were allowed to have franchises in the Visayas and Mindanao. We’re working out the Luzon area,” said Don Garcia, Cebu CFI’s manager for its Makati City office.

“You just need to find a spot or location frequented by many people,” he said. The cooperative allows investors to cash out P40,000 of the total franchise cost of P400,000.

Garcia said this gives investors an initial inventory of 800 pieces of chicken, skills training for employees, equipment, and access to Five Star Manok’s mobile app, which allows vendors to receive online orders and track sales and inventory.

“The good thing is they can already start earning. Investors can borrow the remaining amount from the cooperative and source their loan payments from some of their revenues from the chicken outlet,” he said.

Garcia said there are already more than 30 Five Star Manok stalls in the Visayas. He is optimistic the cooperative’s membership will expand as the financial successes of chicken outlets are shared with all members.

He shared that they’ve attracted 53 Cebu CFI members who participated in a previous AIF in Sucat. Cebu CFI has grown its assets to P15 billion and distributed loans worth P9 billion.

The cooperative also offers loans of up to P500,000 to micro, small and medium enterprises or MSMEs associations. The interest rate is 1 percent per month. Another is a commercial credit line that caters to startups that can avail of a maximum loan of P30 million.