The 2009 SEED FINANCE Stakeholders Conference

“MICRONOMORE, NO BORDERS!”
Mark your calendar on Nov. 26-27, 2009 in Luzon!

Choose from several concurrent workshop sessions and plenary briefings
Have a meeting of minds with partners in the SEEDFINANCE Network and other strategic partners
Network with fellow development workers and providers of support and services
Enter your award-winning video for this year’s video-shoot event
Attend the fellowship night and [...]

UP, UP, AND AWAY, SUPER-SUMAN!!!

UP, UP, AND AWAY, SUPER-SUMAN - Aling Dionesia Dela Pena, Oroquieta CityOne hardly will notice Aling Dionesia in that gathering of small and medium-scale entrepreneurs, government officials, cooperative officers, and other attendees to the Paglaum MPC – SEEDFINANCE SME MicroPlus product launch that sunny afternoon of June 19, 2009. Unassuming and soft-spoken as this lady is, who would believe she is the owner of a thriving enterprise that wows not only natives of Oroquieta in Misamis Occidental but also balikbayans and tourists from the U.S., Japan, Hongkong, and other countries. Only when she began asking questions about the SME facility being introduced by Paglaum Multi-Purpose Cooperative (where she is a member) and SEEDFINANCE will you be able to discern the business instincts underneath that homely, motherly figure.

Mrs. Dionesia Dela Pena of Oroquieta City combines the roles of mother and businesswoman with pizzazz. Needing to supplement the family coffers, she started out years ago on a home-based suman-making micro-enterprise, balancing her time in carrying out her household duties of cooking and washing and what-have-yous and managing the business. Typical of tourist destinations, Oroquieta has its share of local delicacies and pasalubongs, but Aling Dionesia’s suman has that distinct taste and quality that locals and tourists alike swear to. As locals are fond to exaggerate, Aling Dionesia’s suman is ‘something to die for’. More…

Empowerment comes in all shapes and sizes

(ROWENA PARAGADOS – Don’t underestimate this lady)

Empowerment comes in all shapes and sizes - Rowena ParagadosThe forum held by Lamac Multi-Purpose Cooperative (LMPC) and SEEDFINANCE Corporation especially for MSME clients that June 2009 morning was well-attended. The atmosphere was formal, and to add to the formality, a very unassuming lady with a somehow imposing size, sits at a corner waiting for her turn to share her experiences and sign the agreements for the SME loan facility being offered at that time.

Looking more than a dozen years back, it was 1996 when this lady, Rowena Paragados became a member of LMPC. With her first availment of a PhP5,000.00 microfinance loan, she used this to pump-up her food peddling micro-venture then. The venture was the kind where she’s almost always ambulant, peddling her food ware where the market would be. The combination of perseverance and the little financial help worked wonders for the enterprise, and soon enough, Rowena was a small restaurant owner. More

MICRO-PLUS as Micronomore

Consistent with the development perspective of bringing micro-entrepreneurs to the next level of economic growth, a new financial product was recently piloted to 3 cooperatives, namely: Lamac Multi-Purpose Cooperative, Metro Ormoc Community Cooperative and Paglaum Multi-Purpose Cooperative.
This SME financing product, named as Micro-Plus, is designed for the partners’ microfinance graduates who have successfully increased their [...]

Renewable Energy: Getting Off the Grid

The perspective of using cleaner, secure and sustainable sources of energy is not just immediately necessary in the face of the ever-rising prices of oil products but is our only way to live as humans and save the earth. Micro-no-more supports the NGOs, the Department of Energy and providers of solar and wind energy [...]

Islands Activation Program

Micro-no-more pooled-in the resources of SEEDFINANCE, SMART Communications and Partner-MFIs in launching the project: ISLANDS ACTIVATION PROGRAM. This program is designed for institutions located in remote areas where there is none if not very limited access to financial services. The solution includes provisioning SMART Money services and mobile-based applications for members of the [...]

Micronomore: Microfinance and Beyond

Microfinance is not forever. Or at least it should not be. If a micro-entrepreneur remains micro forever, not only would he or she have failed, but the microfinance institution assisting would have failed even on a bigger scale. An MFI should provide a perspective for growth for the micro-entrpreneur. The micro- should grow to become [...]

Bringing entrepreneurs and their supporters together

It has been a while. The ripples of change have been continually shaping and re-shaping the socio-economic landscape yet our partnership remains stable and mutually rewarding. From the beginnings of our collaboration in CARE, then at SEAD, and now on to SEEDFINANCE, we have seen each other’s growth as we overcame challenges and forded on.
This [...]

Micro– to Small Success Story

KWENTONG PENOY

Entrepreneur’s Name : Tobias Solis
Location : Santa Maria, Bulacan, Luzon
MFI Membership : UBVAS
Writer : Wilma B. Guinto (wilma@micronomore.com)

Micro– to Small Success Story Tobias SolisKa Tobias Solis, a native of Trapiche, Oton, Iloilo was only 16 years old when he first set foot in Manila to find his fortune. He was able to work as an extra helper in a poultry farm in Last Pinas, the Crescent Corporation owned by Robert Philips. His earning was a meager Php3.00 a day that he spends for his daily subsistence and at the same time save whatever money left so he can send some for his parents in Iloilo. As a poultry helper, he was first assigned to work as a utility helper. Being a utility helper does not stop him from learning the other tasks in the farm. He kept on observing things on what makes their chickens increase its laying productivity. When the company closed its operation he was able to transfer to General Milling Corporation, as a farm supervisor He has broadened his knowledge of the poultry business from brooding chicks to broiler-raising and breeder-raising and poultry to eggs hatchery. Because of his dedication to work (working very late at night and working as early as he can), his co-employees become envious of him that they thought that he was doing something fishy and reported him to their Manager. So when things got complicated, he decided to leave the farm and was able to land another farm work in Plaridel, Bulacan. While working here, was able to go to school at night and has finished his high school education after six long years. More…

Entrepreneur Success Stories

Rowena has been a member oflamac Multi-Purpose Cooperative (LMPC) since 1996, who started with as a food peddler and later on into a small restaurant owner. She first availed a Php. 5,000.00 loan from LMPC (US$22). Gradually, she increased her loan to expand her food business and to establish new businesses. LMPC was there to [...]

Make it grow: a development perspective

Energizing local economies and empowering local communities.
Microfinance is not the catch-all cure for poverty and economic stagnation. It should have a perspective of the micro- going beyond its boundaries/limitations, growing with the times, adapting to the changes in the macro-economic environment, providing or laying down the groundwork for far-reaching solutions to present economic dire straits. [...]

Make your money count

Make your money count
Your money can be placed in assistance programs for microfinance and small-and-medium-enterprise-finance. SEEDFINANCE and its network of strategic partners enable funds to be coursed through local cooperatives, microfinance-NGOs, and rural banks in the form of wholesale credit lines for micro- and SME-finance.

Beyond Finance

Your money does not stop in micro-credit. It goes to other initiatives that are essential in the furtherance of socio-economic goals. From knowledge sharing, to business development services, to technology-riding MSME-finance expansion, to a whole lot more of micro- and micro-no-more projects.
SF-MED CTR: The SEEDFINANCE Micro-Economic Development Center
The SEEDFINANCE Micro-Economic Development Centres see a stronger [...]