House Bill 5468: Financial Window for Students and Young Filipino Entrepreneurs
Posted on November 19th, 2008
Good news to all young entrepreneurs! Once passed into law in the House of Representatives, House Bills 5468 will require banks to allot five percent of their loanable funds to young entrepreneurs. This is done to encourage entrepreneurship among the youths.
This bill also grants college students and new graduates access to a financial window which is friendlier to them to help them start their businesses.
Representative Cynthia Villar, author of the bill said “This will foster their entrepreneurial mindset and develop skills and values necessary to build the backbone of competitiveness in the Philippine economy,”
Every year, thousands of graduates are coming from colleges and universities, while there are too few jobs available. This only further increases the unemployment rate in the country. This bill will help solve this problem, because not only will it encourage entrepreneurship among the youth, but they can also create employment opportunities themselves.
Villar said that by teaching new graduates and undergraduate students to develop an entrepreneurial mindset, they can help solve the country’s unemployment problem instead of just adding up to them. She also recognizes the fact that one of the reasons why the young entrepreneurs are not able to fulfill their dreams of becoming self-sufficient is because of the lack of access to financial resources.
With the bill, all banks, whether they are private or government-owned, will allot at least 5 percent of their lending funds to new graduates and tertiary students. However, these funds should be exclusively used as capital for their business ventures.
The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) is already coordinating with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) regarding the guidelines in availing this facility. They are also assessing the qualifications, eligibility, and other requirements needed by the student entrepreneurs to be able to borrow from this fund.
In line with this, they are also coordinating with the Department of Trade and Industry for the proper training needed by the young entrepreneurs and students to develop their business skills.
