The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has opened a loan facility for small enterprises who may opt to repurpose their manufacturing into production lines for personal protective equipment (PPE), which health workers are in dire need of amid the raging Covid-19 pandemic.
The DTI on Tuesday announced that it has instituted a loan program for micro, small and medium enterprises that decide to produce medical items, such as PPEs, crucial in efforts to contain the spread of Covid-19. The loan, facilitated by the DTI’s Small Business (SB) Corp., can be utilized for the retrofitting of operations of the availing MSME.
Cebu-based Uniform Solutions (Unisol), a start-up for on demand uniforms, was among the first to make use of the loan facility.
According to the DTI, Unisol secured P3 million worth of loan to repurpose its production lines to be able to make washable face masks and reusable protective suits. At present, the start-up can make 50,000 face masks a day and 60,000 pieces of protective suits per month.
And as of April 29, Unisol reached the 1-million mark for produced face masks.
Unisol Chief Executive Officer Jonas Quilantang said the start-up was supposed to launch in the early months of this year. However, things turned for the worse when Covid-19 in January began to spread in China, and eventually infected individuals from different parts of the world.
Assessing that the situation would soon require people to wear face masks, Quilantang took a risk at changing the direction of Unisol by retrofitting its operations.
“Before Luzon implemented its enhanced community quarantine, I got the commitment from one of our suppliers to provide the needed fabric for the washable face masks. We started to make washable face masks mid-March and reusable protective suits in early April this year,” Quilantang recalled.
After a month of production, Quilantang said that Unisol now has a stable supply of the needed inputs and is eyeing to expand its network by forging partnerships.
Trade Assistant Secretary Asteria C. Caberte cited Unisol as “one good example of a company that effectively turned a negative situation into a good business opportunity.” She said that the start-up found a way to repurpose its production lines—originally intended to make shirts, polo and jackets—to manufacture PPEs, as well as keep its workers employed.
MSMEs in Central Visayas can also avail of the loan program by reaching out to any of the DTI provincial offices in the region to signify their interest and get an endorsement to the SB Corp.
Micro enterprises with an asset size of less than P3 million can borrow P10,000 to P20,000. On the other hand, small enterprises with an asset size of not more than P10 million can secure a loan amount of up to P500,000.
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