DAVAO CITY—The combined savings among mostly elementary pupils of public schools in a savings and credit cooperative in Tagum City, Davao del Norte, have reached a staggering P70 million, from a sector otherwise kept out from the formal banking system.
Miriam R. Baloyo, member of the board of directors of the billionaire Tagum Cooperative, said of its 75,121 membership across the Davao region, 51,214 are the young “who cannot be in the banking system yet.”
“They can not just drop one peso deposit at the banks,” she said.
But in the Tagum Cooperative, their sheer number has bloated their aggregate savings, now reaching P70 million, said Juris D. Perez, general manager of the cooperative.
“They come from 50 schools in Davao del Norte, mostly tugged along by their mothers,” she said.
Most are in their elementary years, and as young as a Grade 1 pupil.
The feat was helped by the recent memorandum of the Department of Education (DepEd) to teach financial literacy in the schools, Baloyo said.
The Tagum Cooperative took the opportunity with the DepEd and entered into a memorandum of agreement allowing their pupils to deposit whatever amount. “One pupil was so happy looking at his passbook seeing his money grow that even his father wanted to borrow it,” Baloyo said. “While it may be symbolic for a peso deposit, the children actually put in more to their savings.”
The children’s deposits form part of the cooperative’s P4-billion assets, making it the largest in the region, second in Mindanao and seventh in the country.
Forty percent of its total membership comes from Davao del Norte and its vicinity, but it has already established branches here and in Agusan del Norte, where it would be going to expand to more areas, Perez said.
It was studying the prospect of going into real estate, including housing for interested members, and into financing the construction of warehouses “depending on the need our clients.”
The cooperative has put up a lending window for business, offering loans above P1 million, emboldened by its high collection efficiency of 93 percent.
“But all our new ventures would be based on actual market and client studies,” Baloyo said.
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