MICROENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR. Luzviminda "Nanay Luz" Sunit joins the virtual awarding rites for the 18th Citi Microentrepreneurship Award on June 15, 2021. On Thursday (July 8, 2021), City Savings Bank said Sunit, a dried fish vendor in Medellin, Cebu, has been hailed as microentrepreneur of the year national awardee. (Screengrab from video courtesy of City Savings Bank)
CEBU CITY – A thrift bank has hailed a dried fish vendor from sugarcane town of Medellin in northern Cebu as a microentrepreneur of the year national awardee.
In a statement on Thursday, City Savings Bank said Luzviminda “Nanay Luz” Sunit, who started to venture into dried fish business with an initial capital of PHP4,000, was among the 10 Filipino micro-entrepreneurs honored during their 18th Citi Microentrepreneurship Award.
“I would take the basin full of fish and peddle it around town to make a sale and in 1975, I eventually ventured into making dried fish or ‘buwad’ with an initial capital of PHP4,000,” Nanay Luz said in a statement.
It added that Nanay Luz’s determination, optimism, and confidence brought her to different people and institutions that helped her to get a loan from the First Agro-Industrial Rural Bank (FairBank) in Bogo City, Cebu to expand her dried fish business.
It said FairBank, an affiliate of City Savings Bank, has focused on addressing needs of rural communities by offering access to capital for micro, small and medium enterprises.
With the help of the bank in Bogo City, Nanay Luz’s business became successful with her products now available in the public markets of Medellin and Bogo City, as well as in Leyte.
She now has over 20 workers, including some who lost their regular jobs during the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.
The City Savings Bank underscored the businesswoman’s resilience that amid the current public health crisis, she was unperturbed and instead became more innovative in her business approaches.
“We had to shift to delivering directly to our customers to make better sales,” she said.
Nanay Luz’s journey, which becomes an inspiration to other SMEs and pride for the Visayas micro-scale traders, has received the distinction from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Benjamin Diokno and Citi Philippines chief executive officer Aftab Ahmed.
“We take this occasion to recognize our microentrepreneurs who, despite the odds, have shown great resourcefulness, courage, and resilience to flourish amid the Covid-19 pandemic,” Diokno said in his message delivered during the June 15 virtual awarding rites.
The bank has been supporting Nanay Luz for the past 17 years, it said.
“It is a distinct privilege for FairBank to have been a part of the success of CMA National Awardee Luzviminda Sunit in growing her microenterprise over the years. She was able to nurture a dried fish backyard venture into a prosperous trans-island operation,” FairBank president and chief executive officer William Amado Castaño said. (PNA)
