Outstanding loans to small farmers, fishers and other priority sectors in the first quarter of the year rose 10 percent to P434.4 billion from P387.4 billion year-on-year, Land Bank of the Philippines said Tuesday.
The bank’s identified priority sectors include small farmers and fishers, micro-enterprises and Small and Medium enterprises, agri- aqua projects of LGUs and GOCCs, and support for National Government projects in communications, transportation, housing, education, health care, environment-related projects, tourism, and utilities and livelihood loans.
LandBank said loans to small farmers and fishers reached P34.6 billion, up P2.4 billion from P32.2 billion on year.
The bank’s loans to agri-businesses, aqua-businesses, and agri-aqua related projects of local government units increased 11 percent to P111.5 billion from P100.9 billion in the first quarter of 2016.
LandBank’s support to national government projects grew 13 percent to P288.3 billion from P254.3 billion in the same period last year.
These include loans to MSMEs, which rose to P 59.6 billion from P54.6 billion in the same period last year. These include P7.2 billion lent to micro-enterprises, while P52.4 billion supported small and medium enterprises.
LandBank is the biggest credit provider to small farmers, fishers, and local government units, and the biggest lender to micro-enterprises and SMEs among government financial institutions.
“LandBank remains focused on efforts towards fulfilling its mandate to serve small farmers and fishers and other marginalized sectors, especially in the countryside,” said LandBank President and CEO Alex Buenaventura.
“We are also taking an active role in the implementation of the National Government’s Development Agenda, particularly programs that promote financial inclusion, job generation and countryside development at large,” added Buenaventura.