After working in the banking industry for over 30 years, Josefina Natividad is enjoying her current job in the microfinance industry as the president and chief executive officer of Maybridge Financing.
“My current work is fulfilling because of trust, transparency and empowerment coupled with enough room to be a value creator of unexplored opportunities. The company is also forward thinking, which enables us to navigate through difficult times without losing sight of our mission to help the unserved and underserved segments of society,” Natividad told the BusinessMirror in an e-mail interview.
Prior to joining Maybridge, Natividad held senior positions in Philippine Veterans Bank, Chinatrust Commercial Bank (Philippines), ABN AMRO Bank (Philippines), Solidbank Corp. and Asianbank Corp.
Holding a master’s degree in business administration and a bachelor’s degree in economics, the seasoned banker said she was fortunate enough to be mentored by Maybridge Financial Group Chairman Joey Bermudez. Natividad explained that Bermudez always considered her whenever there’s an available position in the company that suits her qualifications.
“I gladly took the opportunity to become part of the company since I share his passion for social advocacy, aside from the fact that he is a leader who inspires and has the gift for opportunity recognition and creation,” Natividad said.
Natividad acknowledged that the microfinance industry in the country is currently facing several challenges. She mentioned three major problems confronting the industry.
The first problem is financial support for micro entrepreneurs who are in operation already, and for start-ups. She pointed out that micro entrepreneurs start their own business using their savings as initial capital. However, their meager savings won’t be enough to tide their operations even for a year, which usually discourages them to continue running the business.
She said the formula that the big traditional financial channels offer to the market should not be the same as what is being enjoyed by the big companies. “One should be on the ground and listen to the voices of micro entrepreneurs to better understand what their needs are and which model will be a fit for them. The micro entrepreneurs should feel that they are a partner and not just as a source of profit,” Natividad said.
Natividad also cited the low level of financial literacy among some micro entrepreneurs, and their business difficulties need to be addressed. Their low level of financial skills is manifested in the lack of basic recording system of transactions and monitoring of profit and loss. She said the lack of financial information and knowledge of micro entrepreneurs discourages most traditional financial channels to extend financial support.
“The micro entrepreneurs are more focused on the products they sell or where to get the supplies to make their products and the sales for the day, which is often used to put food on their table. Micro entrepreneurs are encouraged to set an amount for their salary where household expenses will be taken out and the rest will be used for business operations,” she said.
Natividad said it would be a good move for micro entrepreneurs to have extensive training on financial literacy even before business registrations or permits are given. The training module should be basic and simple enough to be understood.
A lot of micro entrepreneurs also lack the ability to innovate in terms of marketing and selling. This could be attributed to their lack of confidence to get out of their comfort zones. Natividad said the use of technology, specifically digital technology, is an example of how to promote their products and eventually expand their markets not only locally but also internationally.
Currently, micro entrepreneurs use technology mostly to facilitate communication and operations. She said a lot of women micro entrepreneurs fondly called Nanays in Iskaparate do not even have personal Facebook accounts because they do not know how to create one. Navigating the social media was difficult for them. “By providing training on technology and guiding them on how to use the social-media platforms to promote their products, they will gain confidence to explore avenues on how to sell their products even without a brick and mortar setup,” Natividad said.
Iskaparate is a partner of Maybridge that is helping its Nanay members establish micro enterprises around the country, and to sell food, services and household items using the online platform.
Parent company Maybridge was born in 2008 in Canada at the peak of a global crisis that dealt severe blows to major economies of the world. It was organized by a group of entrepreneurs and bankers who felt that too many sectors of the economy were being kept out of the mainstream financial system because of too many barriers.
Maybridge started as a lender to micro-entrepreneurs and salaried professionals. Later, it evolved into an enterprise finance institution that catered to small and medium enterprises, especially those in health care, education, renewable energy, low-cost housing and financial technology. At the same time, it continued to allocate a significant portion of its risk capital to financing wage earners, and overseas workers.
In 2017, Maybridge became an education-centric finance company when it launched an ambitious program to help narrow the financing gaps in the education sector by financing small private schools, as well as their suppliers, vendors, students and business partners.