Microenterprise Access to Banking Services

NATIVIDAD REGIS: Microenterprise Ventures Provide Opportunities for Returning OFW

She was once the personal maid of an Arabian princess. Today, this lady feels like the princess. And her fairy tale all started with a 5,000-peso BINHI loan.

When the Gulf Crisis broke out in 1991, many overseas Filipino workers were forced to come home. Mrs. Natividad Regis was among the workers who lost their jobs and sources of income. From attending to the personal needs of an Arabian princess in Kuwait, she returned to tending her family’s small rice farm in Abuyog, Leyte.

Mrs. Regis soon found out the profits from their farm were not enough for their family’s needs. She decided to start two businesses – a small stall in the public market selling cooked vegetables and a mini grocery in her house in Barangay Buntay.

Then she heard about the BINHI loan from the Rural Bank of Dulag.  BINHI (Bangko ngan Ikaw Nagbibinuligay para Han Ikakaasinso, which means ‘a bank that works for progress’ in the Waray dialect) loans are micro-loans specially designed for microenterprises. The Rural Bank of Dulag developed its BINHI Loan product with training and technical support provided by the Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines-Microenterprise Access to Banking Services (RBAP-MABS) Program.

Mrs. Regis applied for a BINHI loan and received 5,000 pesos (about $100).  Ms Regis used the money to open a “carenderia” (the local term for a small eatery) in the public market where she could sell not only cooked vegetables but also a variety of other dishes.  Since she has always been known for her cooking skills, it didn’t take long for her carenderia to flourish.  Soon she also put up a sari-sari (grocery) store beside her carenderia. Ms Regis is also popular in Abuyog for her muron, a popular local delicacy made of sticky rice and coconut milk. She takes orders for the delicacy and sells them in her carenderia as well.

Now on her third BINHI loan, Ms Regis is happy that her businesses are doing well. She enthuses, “I feel rich because of BINHI.  I now have savings in the bank that I allow to grow everyday, unlike before when I had to use all the money I earned to purchase inventory just to keep my business going.” An entrepreneur at heart, Ms Regis plans to add eggs and rice to her sari-sari store inventory.  She will soon transfer to the newly built public market building in Abuyog. Indeed, because of the small start she got from the BINHI program, things haven’t stopped getting better for Mrs. Regis.