The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) on Friday urged local businesses affected by tropical storm “Kristine” to avail of the agency’s financing program.

In a Palace briefing, DTI Acting Secretary Cristina Aldeguer-Roque said the DTI is “aggressively” calling on micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to take advantage of the Small Business Corporation’s (SBCorp) loan programs to help them cope with the onslaught of severe tropical storm “Kristine” last week.

“Let’s take advantage of this for you to move forward,” Roque said.

“Of course, this situation is not a good situation, but we can always move forward and achieve better heights if we just take advantage of the programs and the possibilities that the government would provide you, under President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos and ng Bagong Pilipinas,” she added.

Only for MSMEs in calamity areas

Roque said the government had allotted P2 billion for its Enterprise Rehabilitation Financing (ERF) under SBCorp, which is available to all MSMEs operating in areas under the State of Calamity.

The ERF program provides emergency working capital to help MSMEs address financial impacts from disasters, including typhoons.

The program covers losses in inventory, operational disruptions, revenue decline and damages to fixed assets.

New and existing SBCorp borrowers can access loans of up to P300,000, repayable monthly for over three years and with no collateral required.

Aggressive lending

“Now that SBCorp is aggressively loaning out money, whether hit by natural calamities or not, especially to the small and medium enterprises, we make the requirements not difficult,” Roque said.

“There is no collateral. You just have to prove that you have an ongoing business,” she added.

The program also offers a zero interest rate for the first year and a percent monthly interest rate for the remaining two years.