The Governor of the Atlantic, Elsa Noguera, launched this Friday the new social transformation program that will promote financial education, savings and will impact the lives of 4,500 Atlanteans. Banco de la Gente arrived to transform the financial reality of the entrepreneurs of the department who dream of their economic freedom and make their businesses prosper, through access to collaborative loans between 400 thousand and one million pesos.
“Today is a very special day for everyone in the Government and for Finsocial, because we managed to seal a great alliance to transform lives. During the campaign, when we toured the municipalities, we saw that there was a great anguish for the payday. No business in the world with credit at a rate of 20 percent per month can prosper, because the profits are taken by the financing. That was precisely what motivated us to design a strategy to be able to benefit those entrepreneurs who have a business idea, but have not been able to develop it because it requires very high financing, and also the anguish of debt worries thousands of families”, indicated the president.
Likewise, he pointed out that the program allows them “to go from a financing from 20 percent monthly to less than 1 percent. In addition, they will be able to receive academic training in topics that will help them to do well with their businesses. Another important component is savings, because a part of what they had to pay in interest to the daily payer will be deposited in a savings account and, after three months, when the credit ends, they will have that resource available “, Noguera added.
The president explained that this project has already been successful in the world, thanks to the winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Economics, Muhammad Yunus, who created the famous Grameen Bank in India. “The idea was to lend to the poorest and most vulnerable, without guarantees, under a collaboration scheme where everyone supports each other. This model has been very successful and it is what we are implementing in Barranquilla and its metropolitan area with Banco de la Gente”, highlighted Elsa Noguera.
During the event, which included the participation of the CEO of Finsocial, Santiago Botero; the Secretary of Economic Development, Miguel Vergara; from the entire departmental cabinet, from the department’s unions, future beneficiaries and the media, the step-by-step presentation was presented to access the collaborative credit that will mark a before and after in the lives of its participants.
For him CEO of Finsocial, Santiago Botero, launching this ambitious program is only possible when there is an administration committed to providing better and greater opportunities to its citizens.
“The Banco de la Gente is a project led by the Government of Atlántico and supported by the Finsocial Foundation, where we seek that entrepreneurs receive resources and very cheap interest rates to promote their ventures, through a collaborative model. It is the opportunity to socially, commercially and financially educate our entrepreneurs, who are the people who pay to work and are today the engine of the economic reactivation of our country”, he said.
Yuris Sarabia, 33 years old; Siris Cueto, 52, and Silvana Orozco, 39, They are three enterprising Atlantic women who have had to overcome all sorts of obstacles to move forward with their businesses. Yuris has been a fish seller for 8 years and she has great expectations with Banco de la Gente, because she will finally be able to make her dream of having the financial resources to be able to set up her own store and improve her income come true. her.
“For one, who lives from day to day, it is very difficult to be able to make plans for the future and even more so if you have to go to lenders who keep all your earnings. I believe that, with this Bank that came to help us, we have a new possibility that will ease our pockets”, he stated.
For her part, Siris has dedicated herself to cooking all her life, she also longs to set up her own business and make her food known, which she offers at events and parties. Her greatest driving force is her daughter, who requires special care due to cerebral hypoxia, and who drives her to get ahead and not give up. “I have not had it easy, but here I am, fighting daily and I believe that with the Bank at least I will not give away my money to others, but rather I will be able to better invest the profits and thus improve the conditions of my daughter and my entire family. It is that giving away money in interest is very heavy, ”she pointed out.
According to the Secretary of Economic Development, Miguel Vergara, Accessing the benefits of Banco de la Gente is very easy. “What a person has to have is their ID, a running business and the desire to learn and be accompanied. With a yes you can! it is enough for Banco de la Gente to transform the lives of all the people who benefit from this program,” the official said.
Among the basic requirements that people must have to access are: having a running business, have citizenship card, belong to strata 1, 2 and 3 and there is no consultation in credit bureaus. For more information, those interested can access the website www.bancodelagente.co and register in the form and will be contacted by phone or visit the Bank’s office on the first floor of the Governor’s Office of the Atlantic, there they will receive all the guidance and information necessary to access the program and its benefits.
