The City Micro-entrepreneurship Awards (CMA) for 2016 kicked off recently at an event hosted by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Amando M. Tetangco, Jr.
A joint project of City Philippines, BSP, and the Microfinance Council of the Philippines, Inc., the CMA has recognized, for the past 13 years, small entrepreneurs who have helped overcome poverty with the help of micro finance institutions as partners in financial inclusion and enterprise development.
Each year, a search is made for the City Micro-entrepreneur of the Year as well as one regional award each for Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Special awards are given as well for agri micro-business and for community leadership.
This year, for the first time in the history of the CMA, awards will be given to entrepreneurs in two categories: (1) The Youth Micro-entrepreneur of the Year and (2) The Special Award for Green, Sustainable Business,
The first will be presented to a successful entrepreneur, from 20 to 30 years old; while the second will recognize those utilizing environment-friendly processes and activities.
The Micro-entrepreneur of the Year will receive P200,000 in cash prize while the rest of the awardees will get P100,000 each.
Awardees also gain access to supplementary tools that can help them improve their business including: mentoring/counselling, micro insurance coverage, a nine-day training at the Citi Microenterprise Development Center, computer training, and a laptop.
Eligible to the awards are micro enterprises with asset size of less than P3 million and have shown growth in terms of employment and profits and assets, while maintaining a healthy repayment record with partner MFis.