President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed the Provisional Measure that establishes the Believe Program, launched this Monday, April 22, at Palácio do Planalto. One of the main goals of the initiative is to expand access to credit in the country and guarantee more support for Individual Microentrepreneurs (MEIs) and micro and small companies.
“There is nothing more essential for a society, whatever it may be, to develop, if it is unable to have opportunities and if it does not have credit. We are creating the conditions so that, regardless of quantity, social origin, size of business, people have the right to access the financial system and take out credit”
LUIZ INÁCIO LULA DA SILVA
President
“There is nothing more essential for a society, whatever it may be, to develop, if it is unable to have opportunities and if it does not have credit. We are creating the conditions so that, regardless of quantity, social origin, size of business, people have the right to access the financial system and take out credit”, stated President Lula during the launch event.
“What is happening today is not just a new credit policy announcement. What is happening is the demonstration that we are back to govern this country, to see if we can transform this country into a definitively developed country. This program that was launched today is effectively the beginning of a promising future that this country is announcing to its people”, he added.
The president also announced that the provisional measure signed this Monday includes an increase in beneficiaries in the Pé-de-Meia program, which offers a scholarship to encourage low-income students not to drop out of school. “When we announced Pé-de-Meia, the cutoff line was Bolsa Família registration. And the CadÚnico registration was left out. So, now, we have decided to increase and put the cut-off line in the Cad register and it looks like another 1.2 million boys and girls will enter the Nest Egg”, he said.
UNROLL AND PROCRED — Among the new features of the Believe Program is the creation of a program that encourages debt renegotiation for MEIs and micro and small companies, inspired by Desenrola. Desenrola targets people with a negative CPF and has already benefited 14 million Brazilians. It enabled the renegotiation of approximately R$50 billion in debt and was extended until May 20th.
“In this development, which will be more or less equivalent to Track 2 of that development for individuals, the average is equivalent to 40% to peaks of 90% discount in relation to the person’s problems. It is a significant discount that allows people to pay off their debts”, said the Minister of Entrepreneurship, Microenterprise and Small Businesses, Márcio França.
Crédito also creates ProCred 360, an initiative that establishes special conditions for rates and guarantees through the Operations Guarantee Fund (FGO) for operations aimed at MEIs and micro-enterprises with annual revenue limited to R$360,000. For this audience, the program offers competitive interest rates, set at Selic + 5% per year. Furthermore, it allows the payment of interest during the grace period, contributing to better financial organization for credit borrowers.
“ProCred is so that people can have a 360-degree view. Because this group of people, the MEIs and people who earn up to 360 thousand reais per year, who are the micro, could never get credit. When they arrived at the bank, the big man had already taken the money. Not now, this money is specific to them, they have 60 months to pay at an interest rate that will be equivalent to a little more than 1% per month. This is equivalent to less than half of what the market currently offers for these people”, explained Márcio França.
The Believe Program is based on four axes that serve different types of audiences
AXES – Crédito is based on four main axes. The first (Acredita no Primeiro Passo) is a microcredit program for those enrolled in CadÚnico. The second (Believe in your business) is aimed at companies, through Desenrola Pequenos Negócios and Procred 360. There is also a front that aims to create a secondary market for real estate credit. Finally, the bet on Eco Invest Brasil – Exchange Protection for Green Investments (PTE), which aims to encourage foreign investments in sustainable projects in Brazil.
The Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, highlighted that Eco Invest Brasil can leverage the attraction of capital for sustainable projects by creating a type of insurance against exchange rate variations.
“What we are doing now is developing a product that is a type of long-term insurance that curbs abrupt exchange rate variations and allows investors who want to invest in the ecological transformation plan, and in the broadest sense, via the Fund Climate, which will select exactly the products with a high rate of return and a high rate of decarbonization to place our industry and our production at the frontier of what the world wants to consume, which is a low carbon product”, explained Haddad, who also pointed out the potential of the Believe program to boost the civil construction sector.
The Believe in First Step axis, through support for productive microcredit aimed at those enrolled in the Single Registry, will provide credit at lower rates so that people enrolled in the Federal Government’s Single Registry can undertake businesses and have more opportunities.
At the launch of the program, the Minister of Development and Social Assistance, Family and Combating Hunger, Wellington Dias, recalled that, currently, 41 million families, approximately 91 million people, are registered in the Single Registry. Of these, in the economically active population, 10% have higher education or are doing it, 14 million have secondary education or are doing it, 4.6 million people are already individual micro-entrepreneurs and 14 million are informal entrepreneurs. “Now we are going to support these and reach more people, join hands to overcome poverty, so that everyone who wants to and can undertake and so that those who already undertake also have new opportunities to grow”, he pointed out.
“Acredita no Primeiro Passo will work with three lines of action: training, entrepreneurship and employment. Acredita creates, in the Operations Guarantee Fund (FGO), the FGO Pense no Primeiro Passo, administered by Banco do Brasil and focused on this public in the Single Registry. The initial contribution is R$1 billion in the guarantee fund, with R$500 million in 2024, apart from Sebrae’s share, which also works with other banks. With R$1 billion in investment, it is possible for banks to provide credit of up to R$12 billion. It’s what opens the door for little ones”, added Dias.
MORE CREDIT — Within the Believe in Your Business axis, Sebrae will expand credit lines within the scope of the Guarantee Fund for Micro and Small Businesses (FAMPE). Over the next three years, FAMPE intends to provide over R$30 billion in credit. The president of Sebrae Nacional, Décio Lima, highlighted the importance of the measure for micro and small entrepreneurs, considering that 80% of this sector currently cannot access credit.
“We are here at Crédito to be able to bring what we represent, a guarantee fund that is the largest in the history of Sebrae, with R$2 billion, which will allow us to have a credit portfolio of R$30 billion to serve Crédito. This credit portfolio is representative, because it brings what this sector needs”, said Décio Lima.
Present at the initiative’s launch ceremony, the president of Banco do Brasil, Tarciana Medeiros, pointed out that the Believe program will expand the bank’s relationship with micro and small entrepreneurs, who currently represent around 3 million of the institution’s customers. Last year, BB’s credit portfolio for micro and small companies surpassed the historic mark of R$103 billion, 20% more compared to 2022.
“With the recent creation of the Ministry of Entrepreneurship, Microenterprise and Small Business and with the launch of the Believe program, our partnership with the MPS becomes even stronger and more structured. We are also able to continue supporting public policies, reconciling our social role with business generation and sustainable results. Accreditation will facilitate credit for micro-entrepreneurs, especially MEIs, by launching a specific line for companies with annual revenue of up to R$360,000, and which will be guaranteed by the FGO, which is managed by Banco do Brasil”, stated the bank director .
ENTERPRISE — Antônia Cleide dos Santos represented the individual microentrepreneur category at the Crédito launch event and shared a little about her history with entrepreneurship. “I’m from the backlands of Ceará, the daughter of a single mother, a mother with nine children, and I was the only one to be able to study and have a higher education. I came to Brasília looking for an opportunity, but getting here wasn’t easy. I received a lot of no. Even though I was qualified and had a little knowledge, the doors didn’t open for me,” she reported.
She then joined an association of artisan women and, as time went by and handbag production increased, she became a registered micro-entrepreneur. With the new initiative from the Federal Government, Antônia believes that she will be able to increase her business. “Entrepreneurship, for me, is the best business. I also became an encourager of other women. And, with this program that is being launched today, I am already looking forward to growing more every day, of having other people with me in a few days, employees that I can actually be paying”, she highlighted.