Jean Henri Lhuillier, President and CEO of microfinance giant Cebuana, has long been a staunch supporter of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). His years of helping the ordinary Filipino deal with financial challenges—from pawning to money transfers, microinsurance, and banking services—have motivated him to look for other avenues to help more Filipinos.
Thus, when the government called for a whole-of-nation approach to rejuvenate the country’s MSMEs, Jean Henri Lhuillier was only too happy to answer the call. “It’s my personal mission to help uplift the lives of Filipinos, and as a businessman, I know that one way for people to improve their lives is by having their own business. That’s precisely the reason why, when President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. made an appeal to help MSMEs, I decided to pull out all the stops and establish the Cebuana Lhuillier Kanegosyo Center.”
Presently, MSMEs make up the bulk of business enterprises in the Philippines. In the 2022 list of establishments of the Philippine Statistics Authority, 99.59% of the total 1,109,684 business enterprises operating in the country are MSMEs. Collectively, these MSMEs generated a total of 5,607,748 jobs, or 65.10% of the country’s employment.*
The Cebuana Lhuillier Kanegosyo Center (KNC) is the realization of Jean Henri Lhuillier’s brainchild of an innovative online one-stop shop that teaches budding entrepreneurs how to start their own businesses and MSMEs how to improve theirs. He narrates: “It was my dad, Ambassador Philippe Jones Lhuillier, who initially threw the idea, and I really liked it so much that I ensured it came to fruition.”
The Cebuana Lhuillier Kanegosyo Center helps potential entrepreneurs and MSMEs by using a specialized range of products and services that provide practical solutions designed to jumpstart and/or grow a business. KNC has three programs that provide for the common needs of aspiring entrepreneurs and businesses: Kanegosyo Bundles, a program that lets entrepreneurs choose and put together different solutions, products, and services that will help them kick-start or grow their business. Kanegosyo Assist, which provides everything that is needed to know about registering a business and the permits required to operate it. Thirdly, there is the Kanegosyo Coach, a guide for every aspect of starting, running, and growing a business.
Currently, the Cebnuana Lhuillier Kanegosyo Center has 250,000 members availing of its features across close to 3,500 of Cebuana Lhuillier’s branches nationwide, kiosks in 28 partner LGU locations, and its one-stop-shop website. KNC is also helping more than 900,000 micro- and small-scale online merchants through strategic partnerships it has created.
The monumental success of Cebuana Lhuillier’s Kanegosyo Center and the positive impact it has made and will continue to generate for MSMEs, start-ups, and future entrepreneurs is summed up by Jean Henri Lhuillier himself as he proudly declared, “KNC believes in the Filipino’s passion, creativity, resourcefulness, and entrepreneurial spirit. As we move to full blast gear, we expect to impact more aspiring and existing entrepreneurs, from hundreds to thousands, and soon, millions and millions of Filipinos to be served by the Cebuana Lhuillier Kanegosyo Center.”
Access to Cebuana Lhuillier’s Kanegosyo Center can be gained by simply visiting the Kanegosyo Center website at www.kanegosyocenter.com and registering online for free to become a lifetime Kanegosyo Center member.
