MD KAMRUL HASAN TARAFDER

President and CEO
February 21, 2023

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

Dear colleagues,

In the name of God, the most gracious and the most merciful!

Before I write my message, I thought to send my gratitude to all our heroes, the MFOs, and the rest of the staff giving everything of their hearts, extraordinary dedication, and full-fledged commitment that resulted in an unprecedented performance in our history! ₱5.9 billion in net surplus is unbelievably amazing! Congratulations to everyone including our Board for their never-ending support and prayers. My heartfelt thanks to our clients, as they have given their trust and confidence to this great institution and allowed us to serve them. So, the success of ASA Philippines is the success of the clients. “Nanays, you are truly the owners of this company.”

During the years 2020 and 2021, we struggled to recover our losses. By the end of 2021, ASA Philippines Foundation managed to turn around its financials. The struggle on how to help our clients more as they strive to recover their businesses continues. However, in the recovery effort for the clients, we learned the wisdom of MalASAkit financing, a financing with zero cost for the clients. Last year we gave over ₱7.0 billion through MalASAkit or Qard Hassan financing. Eventually, MalASAkit became the buzzword in our entire system, and it brought all clients together to fight a calamity whether it is a pandemic or a typhoon. This year, the special financing program will comprise 10% of the total loan, to ensure that we are continuously subsidizing our clients’ recovery efforts.

As we are doing better and better by the grace of Almighty God, one topic is always common in our Board discussions -- How do we bring down the rate of borrowing for our clients? By the end of 2022, the effective lending rate to clients was brought down to 34.9% (including the subsidy and CCS). But the Board mandated us to bring it down further, perhaps to 30% if possible. Therefore, the year 2023 will be our test case on how the balance sheet will look after such a significant reduction. For that one reason alone, the income statement will not reflect a ₱5.9 billion surplus in the year 2023, perhaps only ₱3.5 billion or so. To me, it should be fine, as long as we make some contributions to the improvement of the quality of life for our clients and at the same time the Foundation makes some surplus for our continuous growth or for more development undertaking. Let’s hope that 2023 will bring our dream “to stand by the side of the poor” to reality.

By God’s name, as we all will return to Him, at the end!