THE Philippine Guarantee Corp. (Philguarantee) and Esquire Financing Inc. (EFI) sealed a partnership with a ceremonial signing agreement on February 15 to accelerate and increase financing for small entrepreneurs and businesses.
The event was led by Philguarantee President and CEO Alberto E. Pascual and Senior Vice President Celso R. Gutierrez, along with EFI Chairman and CEO Rajan Uttamchandani and President and COO Navin Uttamchandani.
The Philguarantee Board approved a P1-billion credit guarantee facility for EFI, a money service business, acknowledging the pivotal role of small businesses in driving the Philippine economy forward.
During the event, Pascual said that Philguarantee is mandated to promote the mobilization of private funds to support small and medium-sized enterprises, read the statement by the government-owned and –controlled corporation. He underscored that small businesses constitute the backbone of the Philippine economy, fostering innovation, job creation and community growth.
For its part, Philguarantee, as a state guarantee institution, is committed to promote and facilitate access as well as supplementing credit, to achieve its development financing objectives, to include the expansion and growth of small businesses in the country, the GOCC’s statement read. It added that Philguarantee is “looking forward to strengthening its partnerships with other non-bank financial groups, similar to EFI, and various channels with the end in view of MSME [micro-scale, small-sized and medium-sized enterprise] development.”
Image credits: Philippine Guarantee Corp.