Bank Mandiri Distributes Credit To 92,000 MSME Debtors, Pertamina Retail Gasoline Sellers

JAKARTA - PT Bank Mandiri Tbk. continues to take various strategic steps to expand lending to the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) sector. This time, the government-owned financial services institution is partnering with state oil and gas company PT Pertamina to provide financing to 92,000 MSME debtors.

Bank Mandiri Network and Retail Banking Director Aquarius Rudianto said that his party remains committed to improving the welfare of business actors by optimizing the intermediation function. According to him, this step is the company's contribution in accelerating the national economic recovery.

"Collaboration between SOEs is very strategic in empowering the MSME sector as one of the motors for Indonesia's economic recovery and helping Bank Mandiri channel financing to productive sectors," he said as quoted on the official website, Monday, April 5.

To note, the synergy between the two state-owned companies is in the form of empowering MSME debtors in Pertamina's Pertashop Partners program.

Pertashop is a small-scale Pertamina sales outlet prepared to serve the needs of consumers of non-subsidized fuel, non-subsidized LPG and other Pertamina retail products. The presence of Pertashop is considered to allow people to buy fuel closer to the location with the same price, quality and dose as Pertamina gas stations.

"Bank Mandiri does not rule out offering the Petrashop partner scheme to customers and other debtors so that the company can meet the company's KUR distribution target this year," he said.

As information, the bank with the issuer code BMRI has received a mandate from the government to channel loans to the MSME sector amounting to IDR 31 trillion. Until the close of the first quarter of 2021, the realization of this financing was recorded at IDR 9.5 trillion to 99,162 debtors.

Most recently, the government, through the Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto, decided that it would enlarge the portion of MSME lending to 30 percent of all loans disbursed by banks from previously only around 20 percent. This strategy is a direct direction from President Joko Widodo during a limited meeting at the Presidential Palace today.

"The President's direction regarding the financing of MSMEs asks that there be greater challenges so that there is a leap increase so that it is targeted to be more than 30 percent by 2024," he said.