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Al Rostamani assists UAE-based Filipinos in housing financing

Carlos Serrano, in-charge of the company's overall marketing unit and head of Philippine remittance division, said there were already 5,000 POP members when Al Rostamani took over in 2002, and has since processed the membership of 4,000 other overseas Filipino workers (OFW) in the UAE.

He said the task was originally done by a designated individual in the 1990's and later on passed on through the Philippine representative offices. Created through the Home Development Mortgage Fund (HDMF), or Pag-IBIG, hatched in the Philippines, POP is a voluntary savings scheme designed by the government for Filipino overseas contract workers, immigrants, permanent residents and seafarers to save money and avail of a housing loan of up to two million pesos (Dh160,288). It allows OFWs in the UAE and other host-economies with high number of Philippine nationals to contribute monthly an amount equivalent to $5, $10, $15 or $20 through designated partner companies.

Embarking on marketing activities

Serrano said Al Rostamani is now embarking on various marketing and advertising activities to tap most of the 250,000 OFWs in the UAE to become POP members. An OFW who has an existing Pag-IBIG membership in the Philippines may still avail of the POP programme separately.

An OFW must have completed a two-year POP membership payment to avail of its services, Serrano said. He or she may advance the amount equivalent to two years' membership (which can be processed in any Al Rostamani exchange centre) in a single payment. Loan approval is based on a client's capacity to pay. He said the POP programme, which his company manages free of charge and without taxes from the Philippine government, has helped bring to 30,000 from 21,000 the number of OFWs who send money to their families monthly through Al Rostamani.

He said the Philippine government has partnered with Al Rostamani on the POP programme because it is one of the leading exchange bureaus in the UAE and is set to increase to over 20 from the present 16 its number of branches all over the country by year-end. "We have a wide reach," he said, "and the Philippine government wanted to tie up with a company such as ours to make its programme trustworthy."

Serrano said the POP helps OFWs two-fold by giving them a chance to own properties back home on installment plan, the monthly amortisation of which is spread to a maximum of 30 years, and helping them to grow their savings.

He added that POP contributions earn an annual interest of 4.57 per cent and has a minimum maturity period of five years. A POP approved loan, however, is charged a six-per cent annual interest for loans of up to 500,000 pesos (Dh40,080), and 10.5 per cent for two million pesos and below.