MICRO FIRMS GET P22-M LOANS

The Small Business (SB) Corp. has granted a total of PHP22 million to 286 micro and small enterprises (MSEs) under the Covid-19 Assistance to Restart Enterprises (CARES) program as of July 8.

SB Corp said there were  71 loan beneficiaries  from Calabarzon Region, 52 from Metro Manila, 46 from Cordillera Administrative Region, 25 from Bicol Region, 22 from Central Visayas, 26 from Eastern Visayas, 18 from Mimaropa Region, 12 from Cagayan Valley Region, seven from Western Visayas, six from Ilocos Region, and one from Caraga Region.

The agency is the financing arm of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), which started releasing the CARES loan on July 3.To date, SB Corp. has approved 2,419 applications with aggregate loan amounting to PHP78.2 million.

The DTI has an initial budget of PHP1 billion to roll out the CARES program.

But DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez earlier said the total CARES loan applications have reached over PHP2 billion.