Good News For Santri, Kemenkop And PBNU Sign MoU To Develop Entrepreneurship

Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs Teten Masduki. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Nahdlatul Ulama Executive Board (PBNU) regarding the improvement and empowerment of people among students.

"Pesantren have enormous potential in supporting the country's economy, especially through the entrepreneurial development of their students," said Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs Teten Masduki at Syaichona Cholil Islamic Boarding School, Bangkalan, Madura, East Java, as quoted from an official statement in Jakarta, Friday, February 18. .

The MoU is a concrete step in implementing Presidential Regulation (Perpres) No. 2 of 2022 concerning National Entrepreneurship Development for 2021-2024, which targets the entrepreneurship ratio to grow 3.95 percent in 2024.

If you look at developed countries, he continued, the entrepreneurship ratio has reached 10-14 percent. Teten said, PBNU Chairman Yahya Cholil Staquf had reminded himself that this MoU should not only be signed, but there must be evidence.

"PBNU said it targets to be able to print 10,000 new entrepreneurs, in fact I said it was a small number. The number of students scattered throughout Indonesia, I think, together we can print more than that," said the Coordinating Minister.

The creation of new entrepreneurs will be carried out through an incubation approach through a program already owned by the Ministry of Cooperatives. Regarding financing, it can be synergized with the Ministry of SOEs.

In addition, Kemenkop also has a people's business credit (KUR) program whose ceiling level has been increased by the government.

"Banks are also asked to increase their financing to MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) to 30 percent in 2024. In fact, the Coordinating Ministry for Cooperatives also has LPDB-KUMKM (Cooperative Revolving Fund Management Agency, MSMEs) which can help finance revolving funds through cooperatives. ," said Teten.

Currently, his party has conducted an experiment at the Al-Ittifaq Islamic Boarding School Cooperative (Koppontren), West Java, as one of the real sector cooperatives in the food sector that is connected to the modern market in order to implement the Kemenkop task of developing koppontren.

Likewise, the Islamic boarding school (ponpes) in Lamongan, East Java, has a cooperative that connects 17 other Islamic boarding schools in East Java as an example of a modern retail network.

In 2020 and 2021, the results of the mapping of the Research and Development Center (Puslitbang) for Religious and Religious Education noted that 90.48 percent of the 11,868 Islamic boarding schools already had business units. In fact, he said, as many as 2.58 percent of pesantren have three to five types of businesses.

"We can build strong synergy and collaboration, so it will have a big impact on economic development in Indonesia, including those from Islamic boarding schools," he said.

On the occasion, Menkop was present with SOE Minister Erick Thohir, East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa, and PBNU Chairman Yahya Cholil Staquf or Gus Yahya. The agreement is also in celebration of the 99th NU Birthday (Harlah).