Four micro entrepreneurs won top honors in the Citi Microentrepreneurship awards held last month and will be entitled to cash prizes and a four-week entrepreneurship training and small business advisory and coaching sessions at the Citi Microenterprise Development Center.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) governor Amando Tetangco, Jr., who chaired the award’s national selection committee, paid tribute to the winners, remarking that the micro enterprises continue “to surprise us with their creativity and discipline. They continue to make us proud.
Declared national winner was Enrico S. Fojas of Hagonoy Bulacan, who used a P5,000 loan from the Urban Program for Livelihood Finance and Training into the multi-million peso Cookie Mill Feeds, which recycles stale breads from bakeries into high-protein fish feeds.
The three regional winners were: Marylyn Cleto for Luzon, Reginal Paller for Visayas, and Necy Ann Ty for Mindanao.
Cleto won for expanding and diversifying her sari-sari store business in Baguilin La Union into a mini grocery, soft broom factory, computer shop and G-Cash remittance Center, with credit assistance from Tulay sa Pag-unlad, Inc.
Paller owns a talabahan or roadside eatery which she expanded with the help of Vaiant Bank in Passi City, Iloilo.
Ty owns and manages Higher Ground, a producer of mountaineering gear and apparel, targeting mountain climbers wishing to scale Mount Apo, the country’s highest peak. The company has achieved sustained growth with financing from Rizal Microbank.
The Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards is an annual event by the Citi Foundation in cooperation with the Bangko Sentra ng Pilipinas, Citi Philippines, and the Microfinance Council of the Philippines.
The event seeks to promote awareness of micro finance and provide incentives to microentrepreneurs in the country. It honors not only successful microenterprises but also the microcredit institutions that help them survive and grow.
In his response, national winner Fojas said: “When putting up a business, you should consider what are around you and how you can help people and how they can help you.” He added: “Always think of the welfare of your workers … they will be loyal and will do their work right.”