Citi Microentrepreneurship Awardees Come Together to Learn From One Another

Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards (CMA) Alumni join the first CMA Alumni Network Event at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).  They are joined by (first row from left) BSP Head of Inclusive Finance Pia Roman-Tayag, Microfinance Council of the Philippines (MCPI) Manager Aileen Paglinawan, Citi Corporate Affairs Director Aneth Ng-Lim, and BSP Consultant for Microfinance Ed Jimenez.

After a successful decade, the Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards (CMA) held its first Alumni Networking Event at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to bring together its past winners and offer a venue to promote partnership. Funded by Citi Foundation and organized in partnership with the BSP, Citi Philippines, and the Microfinance Council of the Philippines, Inc. (MCPI), the event gathered 16 former winners in a whole day session that served as a workshop on team building, networking, and entrepreneurship training.

The activity was also part of a series of events that celebrated National Microfinance Week, and as part of their participation in the celebration, the winners were invited to exhibit their products in store booths setup in the main assembly of the BSP.
Ed Jimenez, the Central Bank’s lead consultant on microfinance and financial inclusion led the CMA Alumni Networking Event. He was joined by notable speakers such as ABS-CBN News Channel’s Salve Duplito; Mark Ruiz, Co-founder and President of Microventures, Inc.; and Anna Meloto-Wilk, President and Co-Founder of Human Nature, Inc.

“The CMA Alumni network activity provided a fitting venue for the winners to meet each other and explore possible business as well as personal relationships with each other,” said Jimenez. He added: “The alumni meeting also became a venue to listen to some ‘tips’ from well known and successful practitioners on the field of product design and branding, investment options and values needed to carry to be successful in the business realm.”

Anna Meloto-Wilk, Co-Founder, President & CEO of Human Nature, Inc. shared to the participants the need to innovate, provide world-class products, and use their businesses to help the community and the environment.

Citi Philippines’ Corporate Affairs Director Aneth Lim co-hosted the event and welcomed the CMA alumni to the activity. Addressing the participants, Lim said: “The success of any awards program ultimately comes down to the success of its awardees. This is why Citi, together with MCPI and the BSP want to make sure that all of you continue to have access to the right tools and receive guidance to succeed and eventually become small and medium sized businesses that will grow and take this nation forward.”

The session kicked off with Mr. Jimenez leading a series of team building sessions that forced the participants to network with each other while working on teamwork and problem solving skills. Two of the sixteen came from the Visayas and were affected in the aftermath of Typhoon Yolanda. One suffered business losses while the other lost her home and livelihood. However, both showed their winning spirit and actively participated.

Salve Duplito, a well known columnist and writer on personal finance spoke to the participants on how to effectively manage their wealth. Duplito related to the participants that despite growing up with limited financial means, because of the positive financial habits and behavior exhibited by her mother through saving, budgeting, and creating multiple income streams, she and her siblings were able to go to school and enjoy comfortable lives. Mark Ruiz, a social entrepreneur who founded the multi-awarded Hapinoy Sari-Sari store program under Microventures, Inc. spoke to the participants on how to expand their market through innovation, improved packaging, and market analysis. Ruiz, who is the 2011 Schwab Foundation’s Social Entrepreneur for Asia for his work as a social entrepreneur, exposed the participants to hypothetical case studies on how to grow specific businesses. To cap off the event, Anna Meloto-Wilk, 2012 Schwab Foundation’s Global Social Entrepreneur of the Year spoke to the participants about her experience as a social entrepreneur in Human Nature Inc., an organic body care company that she founded and that sources its products from low-income farming communities. Wilk relayed to the participants the importance of product packaging, marketing, and always giving the customer a world-class product and service. She also told the participants that entrepreneurship should not just simply be about profit, but it should also focus on improving the community and the environment.

Mark Ruiz, Co-Founder and President of Microventures Inc., the company behind the multi-awarded Hapinoy Sari-Sari store program, shares to the participants the need to innovate to expand and grow their businesses.

Since 2002, the CMA has recognized over 90 Filipino microentrepreneurs. What started out as an awards ceremony that simply gave out cash prizes to outstanding microfinance clients has now evolved into a program that ensures the long-term growth and sustainability of its winners through entrepreneurship training, access to small business advisory and coaching services, microinsurance coverage, as well as computer training.

Ismael Adiaton, a CMA alumnus who in 2011 won a special award for sustainability for his tin can recycling business said: “I am always grateful to Citi for exposing me to these opportunities. I always attend the workshops and training that are extended to us since they add value to what we do. Today, I applied what I learned from Mr. Ruiz and got the idea of expanding my product and services from tin cans to possibly supplying recycled plastic shampoo bottled containers for Ms. Wilk’s shampoo business.”

Pia Roman-Tayag, head of Inclusive Finance for BSP gave the closing remarks and said: “This is only the beginning. As CMA alumni, the winners are now part of an exclusive group where they can share with and learn from each other. It is both a professional and personal network. Collectively, they can have access to resources that can contribute to the growth of their respective businesses. As CMA alumni strive to grow from micro to small and medium sized enterprises, it is exposure to these kind of resources that will enable them to innovate and drive their businesses forward.”