EXTENDED DEADLINE! Call for Nominations for the 2012 Citi Micro-entrepreneur of the Year Awards (MOTY) Program

On behalf of the Microfinance Council of the Philippines , the Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines is pleased to announce the start of the 2012 Citi Micro-entrepreneur of the Year Awards Program.

The Citi Microentrepreneur of the Year (MOTY) Awards is a nationwide search for outstanding microentrepreneurs in the Philippines. Now on its tenth year, the awards program has been successful in increasing awareness for microfinance and providing incentives to microentrepreneurs in the country. Funded by Citi Foundation, the Citi MOTY Awards was launched in 2002 as part of the celebrations for Citi’s 100th year in the Philippines. The award program is a partnership among the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), Citi Philippines, and the Microfinance Council of the Philippines, Inc. (MCPI).

  1. To honor and give due recognition to outstanding micro entrepreneurs
  2. To provide incentives for micro entrepreneurs to improve their businesses, products, services, technologies, and accelerate income‐generating activities.
  3. To highlight awardees who can serve as models of inspiration
  4. To generate public awareness and build support for microfinance and microenterprise development as a tool for employment generation & poverty reduction.

In 2012, the program will recognize one (1) Citi Microentrepreneur of the Year and three (3) regional awardees from the country’s three major island groups of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. This is open to microenterprises with asset size of PHP300,000 to PHP3 million.

Two special awards will be given — one Special Enterprise Award for microenterprises with asset size less than PHP300,000; and a Special Award for Innovation for enterprises that successfully adopted technological innovations in its business.

Nomination Process

  1. Nomination forms will be distributed to network of MFI, association of rural banks and cooperatives and the like.  Networks and MFI’s can also download the nomination forms from http://microfinancecouncil.org
  2. Networks will distribute the nomination forms to their member MFIs and their program partners. MFI management will be responsible for distributing the nomination form to their branches and loan officers
  3. The Loan/Account Officers will accomplish the nomination forms with the assistance of the Microentrepreneur-nominee.  The accomplished forms will be assisted by loan officers to the top management of the MFI.
  4. The top management of the MFI will conduct the initial screening of the potential awardees.  For the Citi Micro entrepreneur of the Year, each MFI will submit only four nominations, which the MFI considers most outstanding from among its clients.  The MFI will rank the nominations from 1 to 4 using the MFI Monitoring Form.  For the Special Enterprise Award and the Special Award for Innovation, each MFI will submit three nominations for each special award.  The MFI will rank the nominations from 1 to 3, using the MFI Monitoring Forum.

Submission Guidelines and deadline

The nomination forms, write-ups, photos and the MFI Monitoring Form are to be submitted to the network or association (such as RBAP) where the MFI is a member.  MFIs may also choose to submit nomination forms directly to the Secretariat of the Microfinance Council of the Philippines, Inc.  MFIs that do not belong to any network or association may also submit nomination forms directly to MCPI.

Since time is of the essence, nomination forms should be submitted to the Secretariat of RBAP on or before September 2, 2012. Late submissions will not be entertained.  You may submit your nomination forms through fax (02) 527-2980/527-2969 or, through email at info@rbap.org, yvette_rbap@yahoo.com and rbap_tata@yahoo.com

To know more about this awards program, please download the attachments by clicking the pdf links below:

1. 2012 Citi MOTY Information Guide

2. Special Award for Innovation

3. Special Award for Innovation

4. Special Enterprise Award

5. Special Enterprise Award

6. MFI Monitoring Form

7. MFI Monitoring Form

8. Microentrepreneur of the Year Nomination Form

9. Microentrepreneur of the Year Nomination Form

For your information and guidance.