Pressing Credit Congestion, Minister Maman Proposes Banks To Form MSME Assistance Teams

Minister of MSMEs Maman Abdurrahman. (Photo: ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Minister of Micro, Small, Medium Enterprises Maman Abdurrahman proposed that banks that distribute People's Business Credit (KUR) form a companion team for MSME actors to reduce the number of non-performing loans (NPL) or non-performing loans.

Maman said that the KUR distribution bank could follow the success of PT Permodalan Nasional Madani (PNM) which managed to keep the NPL number below 1 percent.

"The PNM has under 1 percent of the NPL. So we checked, we asked, how come the NPL is below 1 percent? One of the answers is because PNM issued one of its corporate operational cost allocations to invest in, issued for the formation of a companion team," said Maman as quoted by ANTARA, Friday, April 25.

Maman asked the 46 KUR distribution banks to follow the steps taken by PNM by allocating a small portion of their profits for the operational costs of assisting MSMEs.

"You (banks) will definitely have a profit margin in this financial industry process. Why not allocate it a little, 1 percent or 1.5 percent it for mentoring operational costs," he said.

Maman assessed that the presence of the accompanying team was effective in providing guidance to customers, especially in terms of financial management and business management. With the right assistance, it is hoped that MSMEs receiving KUR can avoid default.

He realized that the NPL level in lending to MSMEs tends to be higher and the 4 percent figure according to him can still be tolerated. However, he said efforts to reduce this figure were still needed.

The Financial Services Authority (OJK) noted that the MSME sector NPL reached 4.03 percent in January 2025. This figure is lower than January 2024 which was 4.05 percent.

The MSME sector NPL was above 4 percent for several months in 2024.

The highest number of MSME NPLs occurred in May 2024 which reached 4.27 percent.