Kinks with Financial Assistance for MSMEs are being Worked Out

Leroy Almendarez

Financial assistance being provided for micro, small and medium enterprises, through BELTRAIDE, another of government’s COVID-relief initiatives, hasn’t been without its snags.  According to Doctor Leroy Almendarez, Executive Director of BELTRAIDE, there were several glitches initially with the system being used to process business relief applications.

Dr. Leroy Almendarez, Executive Director, BELTRAIDE

“Initially what was happening and of course, like any new system that was developed, you will find some bugs.  So you were finding people who were the same thing, you started the application and the application was incomplete and again either the press or connectivity was lost and if connectivity was lost then it means that the application might have gone.  But what we’re doing, because we can provide back-end support and get into the system, during this first twenty-one days, because it’s twenty-one days for the application period, so during this period you are still getting assistance.  As a matter of fact, all these glitches that we are finding we are sending them off to CITO and working along with eData which is preparing the system.  So that was one of the main challenges.”