IT Summit Day 1: Integration, Digitalization Keys to Financial Inclusion
QUEZON CITY – Day One of the NATCCO Network’s IT Summit opened today with the theme “One Network, One Digital Future” with the tagline “Connecting Co-ops, Powering Innovation Shaping Tomorrow.”
IT practitioners of cooperatives gathered at the Microtel UP Technohub
1) showcase trends, innovations, and the relevance of digital transformation to co-ops,
2) Identify challenges faced by co-ops in digitalization through interactive workshops,
3) Develop a co-op digital roadmap defining the roles of the federation and primary co-ops,
4) Formally launch the IT Club as a collaborative platform for co-op digital initiatives, and Strengthen partnerships and inspire commitment toward one digital future.
NATCCO IT Committee Chairperson, Annielen Panerio from CamSur Multi-Purpose Cooperative, thanked and welcomed the participants: “Digital transformation is about connection, collaboration, and community impact. It’s about ensuring technology works for people, not the other way around. Digitalization is not a threat to our cooperative identity — it is its evolution. By digitizing our SERVICES, we make them MORE INCLUSIVE. By adopting digital literacy, we EMPOWER MEMBERS TO LEAD in the digital economy.”
First to speak was Karl Leung, president of Community Wireless and Power Corporation (CWPC), a partner of NATCCO in rolling out wireless Broadband to cooperatives that will bring quality internet to the countryside, in line with pushing the Konektadong Pinoy Act.
“Cooperatives are the backbone of inclusive economies and digital transformational is no longer optional – it is existential! This summit is a call for co-ops to unite, innovate and lead,” he said.
He cited the aims of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas for achieving “Financial Inclusion” for every Filipino. And key to achieving that is mobile transactions that enable any Filipino anywhere to transact using just his/her cellphone. But co-needed with that is quality and affordable internet service availability.
He hailed the passing into law of the Konektadong Pinoy Act that opens the market to internet providers, subject to regulation. He also declared: “Cooperatives are the backbone of inclusive economies and digital transformational is no longer optional – it is existential! This summit is a call for co-ops to unite, innovate and lead!”
The NATCCO-CWPC partnership – signed in early 2025 – will enable co-ops to retail quality and affordable internet service to their individual members.
Stronger and affordable internet is seen as the open door for mobile transactions to be feasible in the rural areas. It will also enable co-ops to avail of IT services of NATCCO that are compliant with government regulations and international credit industry standards.
Eventually, the result will be more Filipinos with access to formal financial services, growth of cooperatives, and economic growth.
The first Workshops at the Summit involved “Mapping Digitalization Enablers and Challenges in Primary Co-ops.”
Mr. Vicente Catudio Jr., CEO of Abli Payment Technologies that builds real-time, open payment infrastructure, spoke on Digital Credit: Boon or Bane for Co-ops?
Afternoon session speaker was Dr. Noel Victorino, Chief Information Technology Officer at SolX Technologies Inc. spoke on “Leveraging AI for Co-op Efficiency and Member Value” with the aim of using artificial intelligence to expand reach, strengthen community, and streamline operations.
For daily processes, AI can perform mundane daily tasks like drafting memos, letters, reports, summarize meeting minutes to facilitate decision-making, and analyze trends and patterns from data. For financial services, AI can evaluate loan applications, assist members with budgeting, savings goals, and understand basic financial terms. AI can also scan policy documents to flag inconsistencies and risk factors. AI can also automate routine tasks like handling common questions and ensuring instant responses 24/7, freeing staff to address complex matters that require emphatic solutions.
Victorino emphasized that it is important to provide AI with all the data in “order to churn out data-driven insights.”
Mr. Reinhold Hoernle of the German Cooperative Federation DGRV presented the German model of “Building Safe and Sound Cooperatives”. He focused on cooperatives working together and combining resources in a federation – as in DGRV — for “Shared services & central enterprises: running central purchasing, logistics, IT and marketing services for members (and sometimes central finance functions).”
NATCCO leadership has emphasized that the key for co-ops to be able to afford digital technologies is through active participation in a cooperative federation.