BRI's MSME Loans Reach 80 Percent Worth Rp749 Trillion, Exceeds The Government's 30 Percent Limit

BRI employees are seen doing banking activities at one of the branches (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia Tbk. (BRI) reported that lending to the micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) segment during the first semester of 2021 had reached Rp749.33 trillion. This figure is higher than the same period in 2020 with Rp725.27 trillion.

Meanwhile, the achievement of MSME financing in the first half of this year is said to have reached 80.62 percent of the company's total consolidated loans which were recorded at Rp929.40 trillion.

BRI President Director Sunarso said that the achievement of BRI's MSME loan portion increased from the previous year which was 78.58 percent.

"The portion of BRI's MSME loans will continue to be increased and we are targeting this figure to reach 85 percent by 2025," he said on the official website as quoted on Friday, August 13.

According to Sunarso, the company's MSME credit value when compared to the national banking MSME credit distribution as of May 2021, BRI managed to disburse loans to the MSME segment of Rp.723 trillion, while the total value of national MSME loans was Rp. 1,024.40 trillion.

"This achievement makes BRI the largest MSME bank in Indonesia with a market share of 70.66 percent," he said.

Sunarso added that his party will continue to encourage the empowerment of MSMEs in two ways, namely the first to raise the class of MSME players and the second to seek new sources of growth through the ultra-micro segment.

“So, people often say that MSMEs must be advocated. I said no. SMEs must be educated. In fact, if we can educate them and they can be on par with banks or financial institutions, then the potential will grow even more,” he added.

Meanwhile, efforts to encourage MSMEs to advance to class are realized through various empowerment programs, which have now reached 1,800 MSME clusters.

"BRI also distributed KUR (people's business loans) of Rp. 84.87 trillion to more than 3 million customers, and the distribution of MSME interest subsidies of Rp. 5.51 trillion to 8.91 million customers," he said.

For information, the largest bank in Indonesia in terms of assets is said to have also restructured MSME loans affected by COVID-19 amounting to Rp145.78 trillion to 2.46 million customers.

"We encourage MSME actors assisted by BRI to join in one integrated platform, namely the MSME Link, making it easier for mentoring and coaching to be able to advance to class," said Sunarso.

To note, the government has set a target for the MSME sector to get credit distribution priorities of at least 30 percent of the total loans disbursed by banking institutions until 2024. Currently, the portion of MSMEs in bank credit or financing only ranges from 18 percent to 20 percent.