Citi and Germany’s DEG Unlock ₱1.5 Billion for Filipino Women Entrepreneurs — But the Bigger Financing Push Is Already Underway

MANILA, Philippines — A new billion-peso financing deal could put more capital within reach of women running sari-sari stores, trading businesses and other microenterprises across the Philippines, as global lenders intensify their push into one of the country’s biggest but still underserved business sectors.

Citi and German development finance institution DEG have completed a more than ₱1.5-billion co-financing facility for CreditAccess Philippines Financing Company Inc., better known as OnePuhunan, with the funding intended to expand financing for underserved entrepreneurs, particularly Filipino women running microbusinesses.

The transaction is notable not simply because of its size. It comes as development lenders increasingly target a persistent problem in the Philippine economy: millions of small businesses generate jobs and household income, but many still struggle to obtain conventional bank financing.

And for women entrepreneurs, the financing gap can be even harder to cross.

How the ₱1.5-billion deal works

Under the transaction, Citi is providing more than ₱300 million directly while acting as coordinator for the financing. It mobilized more than ₱1.2 billion from DEG, the German development finance institution that is part of the KfW Group.

The combined amount exceeds ₱1.5 billion.

Rather than lending the entire amount directly to individual entrepreneurs, Citi and DEG are providing the capital to OnePuhunan, a Philippine microfinance company that will use the additional funding to expand its lending operations.

That distinction matters for borrowers: women entrepreneurs interested in financing would deal with OnePuhunan and would still be subject to the lender's applicable products, eligibility requirements, interest rates and loan terms.

OnePuhunan itself advises borrowers to carefully review its disclosure statement and loan terms before entering into any transaction. The company is registered as CreditAccess Philippines Financing Company Inc. and is regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

OnePuhunan already has a massive nationwide footprint

The new money is entering an institution that is already operating at considerable scale.

According to the figures reported with the transaction, OnePuhunan had a gross loan portfolio exceeding ₱10 billion as of 2025, with 315 branches across 16 regions and more than 600,000 borrowers.

That nationwide network gives the Citi-DEG financing the potential to move well beyond Metro Manila and reach microbusiness owners in provincial and rural communities where access to traditional bank branches and formal business credit can be more limited.

OnePuhunan President and CEO Daniele Rovere said the financing will also support the company's efforts to expand its reach and accelerate the digitalization of its operations and financial offerings.

Digitalization could prove almost as important as the additional capital itself.

An Asian Development Bank study on women entrepreneurs in the Philippines found that women-owned MSMEs face greater obstacles in obtaining credit and are less likely to use some formal banking and digital financial services.

But this isn't OnePuhunan's only major financing deal in 2026

Here is where the story becomes significantly bigger.

Only months before the Citi-DEG transaction, the International Finance Corporation, the private-sector arm of the World Bank Group, announced another substantial financing partnership with OnePuhunan.

The IFC transaction consists of a three-year senior loan of up to US$60 million, including an IFC loan of up to US$20 million and mobilization of as much as another US$40 million.

The proceeds are designated exclusively for on-lending to women-owned or women-led microenterprises in rural areas of the Philippines.

Philippine News Agency separately reported the IFC-OnePuhunan partnership in March and said the company was targeting a reach of at least one million Filipinos by 2030.

Taken together, the IFC deal and the newly announced Citi-DEG facility show that OnePuhunan is attracting substantial international capital specifically aimed at expanding financial access among microentrepreneurs.

Why lenders are putting billions behind small businesses

The economics explain much of the interest.

IFC says MSMEs represent about 99.6% of registered Philippine businesses, with microenterprises accounting for more than 90%. The sector generates roughly two-thirds of employment and contributes around 36% of gross domestic product.

Yet being economically important does not guarantee easy access to money.

ADB has repeatedly identified access to finance as a major constraint on Philippine MSMEs, particularly women-owned enterprises. In a 2026 financing partnership with GCash lending arm Fuse, ADB said women-owned MSMEs continued to encounter more restrictive lending conditions and fewer financial products tailored to their needs.

Earlier ADB research highlighted an even sharper gender divide. Data cited by the bank showed that about 24% of women-owned SMEs transacted using bank accounts, versus roughly 50% of male-owned SMEs, while reported bank-loan approval rates were about 4% among women-owned SMEs and 14% among male-owned SMEs.

Those numbers explain why development banks increasingly treat women's access to capital as more than a gender issue. It is also an economic-growth and employment issue.

Government is pushing in the same direction

The private financing surge is occurring alongside new government programs.

In April 2026, the Department of Trade and Industry announced a ₱2-billion Women's Enterprise Fund aimed at helping women who already operate businesses as well as women seeking to start enterprises.

The Citi-DEG transaction is separate from that government program, but both reflect the same policy direction: expanding the pool of formal financing available to women and smaller businesses.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas' National Strategy for Financial Inclusion 2022–2028 likewise identifies formal credit access and disparities affecting women-owned or women-led SMEs among the issues that the country's financial-inclusion agenda is intended to address.

Citi has made similar bets before

This is also not Citi's first Philippine social-finance transaction focused on women entrepreneurs.

In 2022, Citi provided a US$20-million loan, then equivalent to more than ₱1 billion, to ASA Philippines Foundation, with the financing intended to support nearly 70,000 low-income women entrepreneurs.

Citi also previously launched a social-finance facility with Home Credit Philippines aimed at expanding financial inclusion, including access to digital devices and services.

What is different this time is the partnership structure.

InsiderPH reports that the OnePuhunan transaction represents DEG's first debt investment in the Philippine financial-inclusion sector and Citi's first Social Finance partnership with DEG in the Philippines.

That potentially opens another channel through which international development money can be mobilized alongside commercial-bank financing.

The real test comes after the money arrives

The headline number — more than ₱1.5 billion — is substantial.

But the ultimate measure of the deal will not be how much money Citi, DEG and OnePuhunan announce.

It will be how efficiently that capital reaches viable microbusiness owners, what those borrowers ultimately pay for financing, whether the credit helps enterprises become more productive, and whether borrowers can grow without becoming trapped by unsustainable debt.

That is particularly important in microfinance, where access to credit can provide working capital for inventory, equipment and expansion — but where affordability and responsible lending remain critical.

OnePuhunan says its goal is to provide financial products to low-income individuals and small businesses that are often outside the traditional banking system.

With more than ₱1.5 billion in new Citi-DEG financing arriving after a separate IFC-backed funding program earlier this year, the company now has considerably more international capital behind that mission.

The bigger question is whether those billions will translate into something much more tangible: more Filipino women turning small livelihoods into sustainable businesses.

WWC ONE MEDIA M.J.E