The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) here has provided livelihood assistance to 120 microenterprises in this province under its Livelihood Seeding Program–Negosyo Serbisyo sa Barangay (LSP-NSB).

DTI provincial director Edna D. Dizon said on Tuesday the LSP-NSB allows a wider reach of business development assistance by bringing government services closer to the people in partnerships with local government units (LGUs).

“Through Barangay Development Councils (BDCs), the DTI shall help capacitate barangay personnel to provide basic business advisory or information dissemination services to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the locality,” Dizon said in an interview.

The program beneficiaries came from 17 villages in this province.

Dizon pooled the efforts of barangay officials that paved the way to the distribution of livelihood kits amounting to not more than PHP8,000 for each microenterprise.

The livelihood kits contain items that will aid in the recovery and improvement of the beneficiaries’ businesses.

“Aside from the provision of livelihood kits to qualified beneficiaries, MSMEs can avail of different services such as facilitation of business name registration, business advisory, business information, and advocacy from the said program,” Dizon said.

MSME beneficiaries of the LSP-NSB program includes sole proprietors, cooperatives, or sectoral associations that are located in identified barangays, including those in communist armed conflict affected areas and vulnerable communities such as the Indigenous Peoples (IPs), refugees or stateless persons also known as persons of concern.

Priority assistance shall be given to MSMEs affected by natural and human-induced calamities including health disasters arising from epidemics and pandemics.

In 2020, DTI-Bulacan provided 200 livelihood kits, conducted 40 entrepreneurial seminars to 20 barangays with 200 beneficiaries (10 beneficiaries per barangay), and disseminated information on livelihood opportunities to 2,200 individuals.

The LSP-NSB program is expected to provide more assistance nationwide to microenterprises affected by natural and human-induced calamities, including health disasters arising from pandemics. (PNA)