Gusto Mo 5-6?

Shubhrendu Khoche  •  May 12, 2023

A group of people in front of a yufin banner.

The first time I went to the Philippines twenty years ago, a friend had pranked me into asking this innocuous sounding question to strangers on the road.

It remains the single biggest pain point for all yufin merchants who have no other option but to take informal loans at 20% monthly interest to run their business. Even after two decades. 
You take five and return six. Savvy?
How do we know? We talked, observed and interacted with all the twenty-four thousand small businesses we signed up. See some of our power users in the picture attached. 90% of yufin small business users are women and 65% have children.
These informal lenders, my compatriots, have had their role to play at the high risk-high returns end of the lending game when credit risk calculation was purely asset based.
But with yufin capturing more of cashier sales transactions of yufin merchants, their informal utangs (loans), giving them insights into pricing, consumption patterns of fast-moving items at their town and regional level and starting to help them accept digital payments, these majority unbanked small businesses are getting primed for flow based working capital lending.
“Gusto mo 10-11?” Sounds better?
My team strongly recommends not to drive a motorcycle or use an umbrella when in the field interacting with small businesses in Mindanao and Visayas. It’s understandable.
OK naman, change is starting.