A fisherman’s friend

December 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment

MEET VALIANT BANK CLIENT: John Cabillon

John Cabillon poster

Mr. John Cabillon is the Visayas Regional Awardee for the Maunlad Category

As a young couple, Mr. John and Mrs. Rosma Cabillon supported their family by venturing into different businesses. With a capital of just PhP 1,000 (US$23), they started making and selling yema (dessert made of condensed milk) and used Rosma’s honorarium as a local barangay official to purchase a second-hand tricycle. This tricycle became their main source of income and gave them a relatively stable cashflow, allowing them to start a recycled bottle business. Rosma eventually worked as a funeral organizer to make ends meet and John continued to run the tricycle and recycled bottle business.

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The Right Recipe for Success

December 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

MEET FAIR BANK CLIENT: Carina Gonato

Back in 2009, Carina Gonato was a simple housewife who tried to make ends meet by selling consigned chicken lumpia around her neighbourhood. Upon the suggestion of her neighbours and recognizing that she could potentially earn more, she decided to make and sell her own chicken lumpia. It took her three months to perfect the recipe. After numerous taste tests, gathering her neighbors’ feedback, and tweaking the recipe, she finally gave it a go initially selling her lumpia inside the Mactan Export Processing Zone compound. Through word of mouth, her lumpia gained popularity and soon, orders started pouring in. She named her budding business Nateck’s Lumpia House, after her husband.

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The Power of Savings – Rural Miners Open their First Savings Accounts

April 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment

By Meliza H. Agabin, RBAP-MABS Deputy Chief of Party

Cantilan Bank Tubod BranchFrom Butuan City going north towards Surigao Norte is the town of Tubod, where mining has become a major source of employment to local residents and those in the outlying towns. Hired by labor sub-contractors of the mining company there, the number of miner-laborers peaks during the dry season and declines during the rainy season. The mining site is about five kilometers away from the Cantilan Bank Tubod Branch, which started its operations in 2005.

As is the practice in the mining industry, mining companies operating in Surigao del Norte and Surigao del Sur outsource their labor requirements to sub-contractors. In some cases, the laborers generally come from outside the local towns. In the case of the mining company in Tubod, more than 50% of the laborers are local residents who work as “casual” laborers in the mine. Since the work is only temporary, there are times when these laborers are out of work, especially during the rainy season. [Read more...]

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Mobile money wallets help microentrepreneurs in the Philippines

February 11, 2011 By 3 Comments

Microentrepreneurs in a Filipino market are saving time and money by accepting payments using their mobile phones.

Turning sideways to squeeze between the tightly packed stalls, customers stop to admire strings of white, pink, and green pearls displayed by Jamera Macmac and her family. The family runs a pearl business in the bustling Greenhills Shopping Center in Manila, Philippines, where customers seek out their unique designs. After years of managing the business, Ms. Macmac wanted to look for new ways to sell her products. She also grew tired of frequent trips to the bank to deposit cash or send money to family in Mindanao.
The innovative solution was for Ms. Macmac’s customers to pay her using mobile money. This is possible due to the collaboration between USAID’s Microenterprise Access to Banking Services (MABS) Program, the Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines (RBAP) and Filipino Mobile Money Issuer G-Xchange Inc. (GXI).  GXI’s service, called “G-CASH,” allows Ms. Macmac to store the money in her “mobile wallet.” She can now use it to pay bills, make purchases, and send money to relatives and friends via a network of rural banks that have been accredited with the support of the MABS program to cash-in and cash-out mobile money.
Ms. Macmac now has “more clients because I don’t need to spend so much time running errands like going to the bank.”  Additionally, Ms. Macmac mentioned that “once people pay me in G-CASH, I can send that money to my family who live far away – I don’t see them often and am now able to help them. Also, I pay my water bills with G-CASH, so I don’t have to spend hours in line anymore.”
With the support of MABS participating rural bank partner Philippine Rural Banking Corporation (PR Bank), over 200 merchants in Greenhills offer mobile commerce services and utilize mobile money.
The bank’s Mobile Phone Banking Marketers, such as Sheryll Tarrayo sign up new stores and vendors, which, according to Ms. Tarrayo, “are excited to try G-CASH because they realize it will bring new customers. Many also like the safety factor of not having so much cash on hand – they are able to convert electronic funds to cash when they need to.” Adds Ms. Tarrayo, “mobile wallets are simple – they make business easier.”
Jamera Macmac 1

Pearl merchant Cairon Macmac completes a sale using the electronic wallet on her cell phone. Ms. Macmac stated that accepting mobile phone payments “has improved my business sales, and now I encourage other vendors to use an electronic wallet on their phones.”

Turning sideways to squeeze between the tightly packed stalls, customers stop to admire strings of white, pink, and green pearls displayed by Cairon Macmac and her family. The family runs a pearl business in the bustling Greenhills Shopping Center in Manila, Philippines, where customers seek out their unique designs. After years of managing the business, Ms. Macmac wanted to look for new ways to sell her products. She also grew tired of frequent trips to the bank to deposit cash or send money to family in Mindanao. [Read more...]

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Text-A-Withdrawal Makes Access to Mobile Money Easier

December 7, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Archie’s assistant handles the GCASH transactions when he and his wife are not around.

Archie’s assistant handles the GCASH transactions when he and his wife are not around.

Mr. Archiebald “Archie” Beldad owns a pharmacy located in the town center of Cantilan, Surigao del Sur located in rural northeastern Mindanao. As a registered client of Cantilan Bank, a participating bank under the Microenterprise Access to Banking Services (MABS) Program, Archie began using GCASH for business in March 2007. He purchases and sells GCASH in small amounts and accepts GCASH as payment for his goods. He has a good credit record with the bank where he has been maintaining a deposit account for several years. Archie also uses the convenience of the Text-A-Withdrawal facility to withdraw from his deposit account and load up on GCASH.  When he has extra funds in GCASH, he also uses Text-A-Deposit to send money back to deposit in his account remotely.

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