Facilitating Microfinance in the Countryside

Product Innovations Fund (PIF)

The Product Innovations Fund (PIF) continuously calls for proposals to design and pilot test innovations in microfinance. Innovations that meet the criteria set by fund donors receive grants that enable MFIs to pursue their product development plan. The PIF was established primarily to encourage microfinance institutions (MFIs) to come up with ideas on how to serve the agriculture and fisheries sector and remote hard-to-reach areas and actually try out these ideas.

The fund is a pilot initiative founded by the ICCO (a development agency based in Netherlands), the Microfinance Council of the Philippines, Inc. (MCPI), the National Confederation of Cooperatives (NATTCO) and Oikocredit Philippines.

According to the fund’s criteria, an innovation may be a new product or service appropriate to a target market. Innovations may also include changes in product features and/or changes in the process of delivering a service. The application of a new technology is also an innovation. However, the innovative concept or idea needs to show potential that it would lead to steady increase in the number of clients served in hard-to-reach areas and among poor households engaged in farm production or agriculture-related activities.

To date, the PIF has given grants to Eclof Philippines and CARD for their innovation proposals. MCPI and its partners encourage practitioners to come up with innovative financial products and services that benefit the poor and urge MFIs to submit proposals until September 30, 2009. The funding is open to both MCPI members and non-member institutions.