Mobile banking access seen to boost Mindanao’s informal agriculture sector

An employee of the provincial government of Bukidnon shows packages of award-winning coffee grown in the province during the 35th Mindanao Business Conference in Cagayan de Oro City on Wednesday (12 August 2026). Finca de Garces in Pangantucan municipality has been a consistent winner in the Philippine Coffee Quality Competition. Bukidnon province has been pushing to become the country’s ‘Arabica Coffee Capital.’ MindaNews photo by FROILAN GALLARDO

CAGAYAN DE ORO (MindaNews / 14 August 2026) – Traders attending the 35th Mindanao Business Conference at the Limketkai Mall here are pushing for mobile banking innovations to boost the island’s P2-trillion agricultural economy.

Maricel Casiño-Rivera, a director of the Cagayan de Oro Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Oro Chamber), said such a move could help develop Mindanao’s agricultural economy, particularly its informal sector, which generates between ₱150 billion and ₱200 billion annually.

“The informal sector is largely undeveloped. It is not connected to the banking financial system,” Rivera said.

The Philippine Statistics Authority, in its 2023 report, stated that the backbone of Mindanao’s food basket consists of small, family-operated farms rather than large corporate establishments.

The report noted that beyond small farm owners, Mindanao’s informal agricultural sector is composed of subsistence farmers, fishermen, and local market vendors.

Local trader George Goking said the financial potential of this largely untapped sector could be enormous especially if mobile banking is made available to them, drawing a parallel to similar developments in Indonesia.

“Indonesian farmers, fishermen, and vendors are enjoying cashless transactions through mobile banking. Their potential to earn more money has become endless,” Goking told MindaNews in an interview Wednesday, the second day of the three-day business conference.

Angela Grace Pupos, GCash area manager for small enterprises in North and Western Mindanao, said mobile banking provides microcredit, streamlines supply chains, and reduces heavy reliance on cash.

Pupos said mobile banking innovators like GCash are reshaping how small community entrepreneurs, farmers, and fishermen move away from manual, cash-heavy transactions.

She said providing digital banking to informal sector players will make their everyday transactions easier, faster, and more connected. (Froilan Gallardo/MindaNews)