Social Enterprise and Development Partnerships, Inc. (SEDPI) is the country’s premier capacity builder in the fields of social entrepreneurship, microfinance and financial literacy. SEDPI, represented by its founder and president Vincent Rapisura, joined eCompareMo’s Finovation 2019 to contribute to a clearer and more solid path towards greater financial inclusion.

He served as the moderator of the first roundtable discussion, which provided insights into the problems and solutions to increase financial inclusion. Panelists included Pia Roman-Tayag, BSP Managing Director​, Center for Learning and Inclusion Advocacy (CLIA), Mags Surtida, Asia United Bank Group Business Head for Credit Cards and Acquiring​ First Vice President, Harvey Libarnes, Smart Communications Inc.​ Financial Service Head​ Vice President, Hamilton Angluben, Cashalo General Manager, and Stephanie Chung, eCompareMo Co-Founder and CEO. Each panelist shared their individual and organization’s efforts towards financial inclusion among consumers.

Speaking for SEDPI’s constituents which are microenterprises and microentrepreneurs, Vince Raoisura brought to the table a question on why microfinance loans are still not on the eCompareMo’s platform. To which Ms. Chung from eCompareMo answered, “We are actually prepared to work with microfinance. We are so happy that they’re here and we have already made steps towards reaching out to them. Our goal is not just education, but financial inclusion.”

Several topics were further discussed in the next discussions. These include working together to empower more consumers and the need to protect borrowers. In conclusion, the panelists all reiterated their commitment in pushing for the advocacy of financial inclusion and education, especially to the unbanked populations.