PNM accelerates rollout of 8% Mekaar financing rate as September deadline approaches
PT Permodalan Nasional Madani (PNM), a subsidiary of Bank Rakyat Indonesia established in 1999 to empower micro enterprises and cooperatives, is accelerating preparations to implement an 8 percent interest rate for its PNM Mekaar financing program by September 2026. The move follows President Prabowo Subianto's May 2026 directive to reduce rates from approximately 24 percent, addressing what he termed an inequality where large businesses accessed loans at 9-10 percent while the poor faced rates nearly three times higher.
The state-owned enterprise is collaborating intensively with relevant ministries and government institutions to ensure the transition reaches intended beneficiaries effectively. At the center of these efforts is the Finance Ministry's Program Credit Information System (SIKP), which PNM is connecting through a host-to-host mechanism to verify eligible recipients and track disbursements.
Simultaneously, PNM is finalizing a Financing Cooperation Agreement with the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises while seeking liquidity support from state-owned banks coordinated by Danantara, Indonesia's sovereign wealth fund established in February 2025 that oversees approximately $900 billion in public assets across 844 companies.
Extensive network enables rapid deployment
PNM's operational infrastructure positions it to implement the policy at scale. As of June 2026, the company operates 58 branch offices, 620 ULaMM service offices, and 4,035 Mekaar unit offices nationwide. The Mekaar program, launched in 2015 to serve underprivileged women ultra-micro entrepreneurs, had reached approximately 15.06 million customers by 2023, with 99.8 percent of disbursements processed cashlessly. The program experienced a 25.7 percent compound annual growth rate in accounts from 2019 to 2023.
PNM President Director Kindaris emphasized that all implementation mechanisms are being prepared simultaneously to meet the September timeline.
Financing and empowerment must provide broader benefits for ultra-micro entrepreneurs. For us, more affordable access to financing must go hand in hand with assistance and empowerment, so that the benefits are not only felt today, but also help customers grow and become increasingly independent.
Economic significance of ultra-micro sector
The policy targets a critical segment of Indonesia's economy. Micro and ultra-micro businesses represent 98 percent of the country's MSMEs, absorb 89 percent of the workforce, and contributed 37.35 percent of Indonesia's GDP as of 2019. More than half of Indonesia's MSMEs are managed by women, who serve as key contributors to household income and local economic resilience, with the entire MSME sector contributing over 60 percent of national GDP.
PNM's approach integrates financing with business assistance, capacity building, financial literacy programs and network strengthening. This model aims to transform access to capital into a catalyst for sustained business development rather than merely providing short-term liquidity.
To support its expanded mandate, PNM issued 16 trillion rupiah in orange bonds in 2025, marking Indonesia's first sustainable finance instrument specifically focused on empowering underprivileged women through financial inclusion programs. As part of the Ultra Micro Holding structure established in 2021 to improve affordable financing access, PNM operates within a coordinated framework designed to reach Indonesia's most vulnerable economic actors.
With all preparation processes underway across multiple government agencies and financial partners, PNM expressed confidence that the reduced 8 percent interest rate will launch as scheduled in September 2026, expanding opportunities for ultra-micro entrepreneurs to grow their businesses while strengthening family economies from the grassroots level.
