Gov’t urged to develop markets first to make programs sustainable

Mariel Vincent Rapisura, president of Social Enterprise Development Partnerships, Inc. (SEDPI), and Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III seals the deal to help small and micro enterprises of the province.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

WHILE the Capitol is already at work building the capacity of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSME) in the province, a development worker said more should be done in terms of market development.

Mariel Vincent Rapisura, president of Social Enterprise Development Partnerships, Inc. (SEDPI), said a lot of government interventions have a bias toward production or addressing the supply side.

“As a development worker, I want to ensure there is a market first before there is production. We produce and produce, but where will it be sold?” he told Cebu Daily News in a phone interview on Monday.

He said many government agencies don’t look at market intervention first because they don’t find it “sexy” dealing with business heads or institutional buyers, contrary to their interactions with farmers or other members of the marginalized sector.

Rapisura said that if the market is developed with the intention of involving micro-enterprises in the value chain, government will create more sustainable programs and initiatives that have more impact on the community.

The Cebu provincial government, through Gov. Hilario Davide III, entered into a partnership with SEDPI last Feb. 3 in a bid to help MSMEs increase their income following a series of financial literacy trainings.

Rapisura, an awardee of the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur in 2012, said they will be inviting small and micro-entrepreneurs from different municipalities in Cebu to undergo training on financial literacy, financial analysis and marketing strategies.

Rapisura said it was very important for MSMEs to be trained in financial literacy since most of these entrepreneurs mix personal and business money. He said there is a need to teach them how to separate these so they will be able to know whether they are generating enough income to cover their business expenses.

“One example is that because they are the business owner, they no longer charge salaries for themselves. They think that they are already generating income, but if you compute the value of their labor, it’s not sustainable,” he explained.

Financing and marketing, on the other hand, are two of the most challenging parts of doing business in the Philippines since a lot of MSMEs have no access to financial services.

Marketing also helps them understand the essence of their products and the needs of their market, while SEDPI provides them tools to link with other markets, allowing them to think beyond who they are serving now.

During SEDPI’s initial partnership with Capitol last year, three trainings have been conducted between October to November with the largest number of participants reaching 400, said Rapisura.

The participating MSMEs came from farming communities, food processing, beverage sector, small manufacturing, handicrafts, and cooperatives.

“We’re going to do the evaluation six months after to see whether there’s an increase in gross revenues of those who attended,” said Rapisura.

This year, they target 300 MSMEs for a series of trainings that will run from March to June.

SEDPI also plans to conduct a forum within that period that would link financial institutions to MSMEs allowing them to access loans and insurances procedures.