Fisheries Loan Program still Face Obstacles

KOMPAS/P RADITYA MAHENDRA YASA

Fishermen repair their nets in Tambaklorok, Semarang, Central Java, on Monday (20/1/2020).

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — The disbursement of the government’s fisheries loan program from January to Oc-tober this year, distributed by the Public Service Agency for Marine and Fisheries Capital Manage-ment (BLU-LPMUKP), reached Rp 201 billion. This amount is only 26.8 percent of this year’s target of Rp 725 billion.

From November 2017 to October 2020, the total amount of disbursed loans stood at Rp 601 billion. These loans were distributed to fishermen, fish farmers, processors, wholesalers, retailers, salt farm-ers, as well as small businesses located along the coastline.

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According to BLU-LPMUKP director Syarif Syahrial, in an interview in Jakarta on Tuesday, the amount of financing requests received by his agency totaled Rp 2 trillion. Nevertheless, the proposal assess-ment process faces serious obstacles, specifically limited human resources and personnel mobility. Moreover, fishermen, farmers and businesses whose proposals had been approved decided to delay the disbursement of their loan.

The adjustment was made to ease lending procedures. “Currently, the whole process from ap-plication, assessment, and disbursement can be done at local level.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency has made some adjustments in the loan application pro-cess. The adjustment was made to ease lending procedures. “Currently, the whole process from ap-plication, assessment, and disbursement can be done at local level,” Syarif said.

BLU-LPMUKP is an agency established by the government to improve financing access for fishermen and businesses within the marine and fisheries sector. The interest of loans from the agency is only 3 percent per annum.

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Syarif explained that the agency demands borrowers to provide collateral for their respective loans. The collateral is necessary to educate fishermen and businesses that the agency’s financing scheme is a loan, not government aid. The collateral could take the form of building, ships, equipment and inventory, as well as personal assets.

KOMPAS/ABDULLAH FIKRI ASHRI

The chairman of the Indonesian Fishermens’ Union, Indramayu Daryati, checks his ship in Muara Karangsong, Indramayu regency, West Java, on Monday (26/10/2020). Fishermen have complained that the price of their catch has fallen by almost 50 percent as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry’s secretary-general, Antam Novambar, said BLU-LPMUKP was a solution from the government to improve financing access. Antam had urged the agency’s per-sonnel to socialize the program, assess loan applications, distribute the loans, as well as support stakeholders in the marine and fisheries sector.

Cooperation between the ministry and regional government also needs to be improved. To date, re-gional heads have not provided the much needed support to improve financing access for local fish-ermen and businesses.

“Some micro businesses are reluctant to apply for loans from banks. I hope the agency’s personnel encourages them to expand their business. Such encouragement is important to keep our economy growing,” Antam said.

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Indonesian Traditional Fishermen Association (KNTI) chairman Dani Setiawan expressed his support for BLU LPMUKP, saying the agency helps fishermen by providing financing opportunity with low interest. The loan application process, however, is too complicated for small fishermen. “Many fish-ermen complained over the complicated loan application process,” Dani said.

But the government should make the financing scheme more accessible for small fishermen and businesses in the marine and fisheries sector by relaxing the application re-quirements.

He understands that the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry has limited human resources com-pared to the banking sector. But the government should make the financing scheme more accessible for small fishermen and businesses in the marine and fisheries sector by relaxing the application re-quirements.

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Center of Maritime Studies for Humanities executive director Abdul Halim said the government needed to assist fisheries group and cooperatives in spending the loans. Without such assistance, the loans could become a burden for fishermen, especially when business is not going well. Provid-ing assistance is necessary to meet the agency’s vision of establishing a sustainable and accountable fisheries sector, Abdul added.K