GOVERNMENT-OWNED Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) reported record-high growth in its gross loan portfolio, as it capped 2018 with P799.2 billion in gross regular loans. This is higher by 33 percent than the P601.2 billion reported in 2017 and is the highest year-on-year growth since 2009.
This translates to a 29-percent rise in the bank’s gross loan portfolio to P867.3 billion, from P674.4 billion as of end-2017.
LandBank President and CEO Alex V. Buenaventura attributed the significant increase to substantial growth in the bank’s loans to its priority sectors, which reached P734.4 billion as of end-December 2018. This is a 30-percent surge from P564.1 billion in 2017 and makes up 92 percent of the bank’s total loans to all sectors of P798.8 billion.
The bank’s priority sectors comprise of small farmers and fishers (SFFs), a good part of which are agrarian reform beneficiaries; Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs); agri- and aqua-projects including those of local government units (LGUs) and government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs); communications; transportation; housing; education; health care; environment-related projects; tourism; utilities; and, other industries in support of National Government (NG) priority programs. “We have been very aggressive in expanding our support to our priority sectors, especially the farmers, as we strive to make our loan programs more accessible to the sectors we are mandated to serve. We have a long way to go, but this is a commitment we take seriously and shall remain the bank’s priority thrust moving forward,” Buenaventura said.
LandBank’s outstanding loans to small farmers, including agrarian reform beneficiaries and their associations grew by 9 percent to P49.3 billion, from P45.2 billion as of end-2017.
Agri-business loans also registered hefty growth, with 83-percent increase to P151.2 billion, from P82.6 billion. This brings the bank’s support for agriculture and fisheries up by 25 percent to P172.7 billion, which includes loans for aqua-business and loans for agri-aqua related projects of LGUs and GOCCs.
Meanwhile, the bank’s support for NG priority programs jumped 35 percent to P512.4 billion, from P380.7 billion. These include loans for microenterprises and SMEs, which increased by 51 percent to P135.5 billion; tourism, which is up by a hefty 151 percent to P22.1 billion; communications at P44.7 billion with a 43-percent increase; and health care which rose by 35 percent to P19.2 billion. Other sectors that registered significant growth include education, which grew 33 percent to P8 billion; utilities, which is 27-percent higher at P133.7 billion; transportation at P51.7 billion with 33-percent growth; and housing (socialized, low cost and medium cost) higher by 23 percent at P59 billion.
LandBank remains the biggest credit provider to SFFs and the biggest lender to LGUs and MSMEs among government financial institutions.