To Rise On Savings Need
By: Jeremaiah Opiniano
Some 15 self-help groups made up former overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Nueva Ecija will formalize this year a province-wide federation to encourage savings and build capital.
The Nueva Ecija OFW Federation (NEOFED) will have member – groups coming from the towns of Talavera, Aliaga, Laur, and Bongabon, and the cities of Cabanatuan, Palayan, and San Jose, the provincial capital, said Fernando Cara, president of NEOFED.
According to Cara, the OFW groups in Nueva Ecija have agreed to form NEOFED so that OFWs from their home towns wouldn’t suffer current financial difficulties.
Cara is also president of the Sto. Domingo OFW Association, a six-year-old group that hands out small-scale livelihood loans to some of its 75 members who run micro-retail stores in the town of Sto. Domingo, 30 kilometers northwest of Cabanatuan City.
Cara said, “NEOFED hopes to jumpstart money-earners’ and remittance receivers’ moves to save money for reinvestment or new investments and the provincial capitol in Palayan City will serve as the federation’s headquarter.
According to documents from the Cabanatuan City-based NGO Action for Social Progress, Inc. (ASPI), the 15 member-groups of NEOFED have an estimated total of 1,244 members. Meanwhile, the number of OFWs in three Novo Ecijano cities and 14 provinces showed that there are some 6,204 former OFWs according to data from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) office in Nueva Ecija.
Information, however, of OFW presence in 12 other Novo Ecijano towns are not available because of the absence of organized groups, OWWA information revealed.
Nueva Ecija, based on 1998 to 2002 data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) on the provincial origins of OFWs deployed, is the ninth topmost source of contract workers among provinces with 44,947. Ilocos Norte is the top province in terms of OFWs deployed with 109,007.
ASPI and the Manila-based nonprofit Economic Resource Center for Overseas Filipinos (ERCOF) will provide technical assistance to NEOFED especially on building up capital, instituting forced savings, and accessing to savings and credit instruments from financial institutions, according to ERCOF president Ildefonso Bagasao.
POWER PACT
The Asian Development Bank’s 2004 study titled Enhancing the Efficiency of Overseas Workers Remittances bared that 90 percent of OFW-respondents of a nationwide market research said “they are able to save”. Majority of these respondents said they save from $51 to $200 monthly in banks in their countries of work and residence.
The ADB also did that market study to 300 OFW households nationwide, and it found that remittances contributed about 80 percent of households’ total income. These households also allocate their income from abroad for food consumed at home, utilities and other household operations, personal care and effects and communications and transportation.
Some 68 percent of the respondent-OFW households said they are able to save – with more than half of these saving between P1,000 to P3,000 monthly (or some five to 30 percent of the remittance-allocations going to savings.)
Some 2.7 million households of overseas workers, according to a study by University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P) economist Dr. Roberto de Vera, spent P459.9 million – based on data from the government’s 2000 Family Income and Expenditures Survey (FIES).
While province-wide data on spending are not available in de Vera’s study, regional data are available and OFW households from Central Luzon which spent P52.8 billion (or 11.5 percent of the national total ).
How about in Aklan? is there any move to organize Aklan’s OFWs with the view to save income for future investment? /MP http://madyaas_pen@yahoo.com
The Nueva Ecija OFW Federation (NEOFED) will have member – groups coming from the towns of Talavera, Aliaga, Laur, and Bongabon, and the cities of Cabanatuan, Palayan, and San Jose, the provincial capital, said Fernando Cara, president of NEOFED.
According to Cara, the OFW groups in Nueva Ecija have agreed to form NEOFED so that OFWs from their home towns wouldn’t suffer current financial difficulties.
Cara is also president of the Sto. Domingo OFW Association, a six-year-old group that hands out small-scale livelihood loans to some of its 75 members who run micro-retail stores in the town of Sto. Domingo, 30 kilometers northwest of Cabanatuan City.
Cara said, “NEOFED hopes to jumpstart money-earners’ and remittance receivers’ moves to save money for reinvestment or new investments and the provincial capitol in Palayan City will serve as the federation’s headquarter.
According to documents from the Cabanatuan City-based NGO Action for Social Progress, Inc. (ASPI), the 15 member-groups of NEOFED have an estimated total of 1,244 members. Meanwhile, the number of OFWs in three Novo Ecijano cities and 14 provinces showed that there are some 6,204 former OFWs according to data from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) office in Nueva Ecija.
Information, however, of OFW presence in 12 other Novo Ecijano towns are not available because of the absence of organized groups, OWWA information revealed.
Nueva Ecija, based on 1998 to 2002 data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) on the provincial origins of OFWs deployed, is the ninth topmost source of contract workers among provinces with 44,947. Ilocos Norte is the top province in terms of OFWs deployed with 109,007.
ASPI and the Manila-based nonprofit Economic Resource Center for Overseas Filipinos (ERCOF) will provide technical assistance to NEOFED especially on building up capital, instituting forced savings, and accessing to savings and credit instruments from financial institutions, according to ERCOF president Ildefonso Bagasao.
POWER PACT
The Asian Development Bank’s 2004 study titled Enhancing the Efficiency of Overseas Workers Remittances bared that 90 percent of OFW-respondents of a nationwide market research said “they are able to save”. Majority of these respondents said they save from $51 to $200 monthly in banks in their countries of work and residence.
The ADB also did that market study to 300 OFW households nationwide, and it found that remittances contributed about 80 percent of households’ total income. These households also allocate their income from abroad for food consumed at home, utilities and other household operations, personal care and effects and communications and transportation.
Some 68 percent of the respondent-OFW households said they are able to save – with more than half of these saving between P1,000 to P3,000 monthly (or some five to 30 percent of the remittance-allocations going to savings.)
Some 2.7 million households of overseas workers, according to a study by University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P) economist Dr. Roberto de Vera, spent P459.9 million – based on data from the government’s 2000 Family Income and Expenditures Survey (FIES).
While province-wide data on spending are not available in de Vera’s study, regional data are available and OFW households from Central Luzon which spent P52.8 billion (or 11.5 percent of the national total ).
How about in Aklan? is there any move to organize Aklan’s OFWs with the view to save income for future investment? /MP http://madyaas_pen@yahoo.com
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