The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
Telecom giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) financial technology unit FINTQ and affiliate Smart’s Voyager Innovations are targeting to include 30 million Filipinos into the financial system by 2020 through a project in collaboration with the Liga ng mga Barangay (Liga), the association of local government units with the largest membership representing barangays nationwide.
The initiative is part of KasamaKA, the first-of-its-kind program that aims to accelerate financial inclusion in the Philippines.
It combines financial literacy with an income opportunity builder that rewards responsible usage of digital financial services such as digital micro savings, lending, micro insurance, micro investments, payments, lay-away, and other schemes.
The initiative was launched last September at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilpinas (BSP) led by BSP Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr with Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Teresita Herbosa.
FINTQ’s collaboration with Liga aims to expand its community livelihood and entrepreneurship initiatives through their existing and new educational programs.
The partnership is a massive and sustained implementation to create millions of income opportunity builders.
Barangay constituents particularly the likes of ambulant vendors, farmers, and self-employed workers who remain financially excluded can learn more about available, accessible and affordable financial services.
At the same time, they can also earn up to P300 additional income every time they use a service or successfully refer a relative, a friend or their regular customer.
“Being able to go down to the barangay level to enable access to financial services is people empowerment at its finest. This is our commitment to promote bottom-up inclusive growth initiatives that would address poverty. This is where you find the 69 percent unbanked and underserved population. Engaging and enabling them to have credit footprint will surely unlock economic opportunities leading to much better lives,” Lito Villanueva, Managing Director of FINTQ, said.
“With the increase of self-rated poor in the third quarter of this year based on the latest Social Weather Station survey, there is a need to have targeted, impactful and sustained public-private sector interventions, and KasamaKA is one of them,” he added
Among the initial digital financial services currently included in the KasamaKA program are any digital loan from over 70 partner banks and institutions in Lendr and will also soon include digital payment transactions from eMoney wallet PayMaya.
The grassroots movement is in support of the government’s National Strategy for Financial Inclusion and National Retail Payments System.
“Financial inclusion is definitely part of our capacity building measures. Being at the grassroots, KasamaKA is an enabler so our over 42,000 barangays can be empowered to have greater awareness and access to inclusive digital financial services. As a national movement for inclusive growth, it will surely have a ripple effect on economic growth and development,” LNMB National President Edmund Abesamis said.
KasamaKA addresses the challenge of providing strong incentives for the unbanked and underserved consumers to try to access financial services. At the same time, it also opens up opportunities to banks and other financial institutions to expand their offerings to serve these segments.
Rapid adoption of digital technologies among the population and the rise of FinTech players are accelerating financial inclusion.
However, the opportunities to bridge the digital financial access divide remains huge. According to data from the World Bank, there are still 69 percent of Filipinos aged 15 and above who do not have a bank account.
A big challenge is uneven access to services. Banks are non-existent in 36 percent of cities and towns. As per BSP data, around 57 percent of banks are located in the National Capital Region, Calabarzon and Central Luzon.
“KasamaKA as a national movement for inclusive growth will surely have a ripple effect on economic growth and development,” Abesamis added.
To make financial inclusion work, KasamaKA combines technology and a grassroots-based approach.
Filipinos can sign up to become part of KasamaKA by just registering online (www. kasamaka.com) or by texting KKK to 292901555 to jumpstart the free registration process. Once signed-up, a member gets his own KasamaKA code. Incentives are provided based on referrals and transactions in services that are giving rewards via KasamaKA.
FINTQnologies, Corp. (FINTQ) is the global pioneer in mobile-first financial technology innovations for emerging markets.
Working in collaboration with partners such as banks, financial institutions and governments, among its key thrusts is to accelerate inclusive digital finance in the era of digital economy.
Its platforms and services encompass areas including loans, insurance, micro savings, disbursements, anti-fraud security, and cloud e-banking platforms.