FILIPINOS have taken to digital lending with a vengeance, lending platform Digido said on Monday, having spent a total of 75,305 hours — equivalent to nearly nine years — using creditspecific apps in 2022.

Ten digital lending platforms with apps on the App Store or Google play had a combined total of 14.2 million downloads as of the end of last year, Digido added, accounting for 3.4 percent of total finance category downloads.

This was 2.2 percent higher compared to November and 35.2 percent more than a year earlier.

The total of 2.3 million active users — those who consistently logged on at least once in the last six months — accounted for 3.2 percent of the Philippine adult population ages 18 and over, Digido continued.

In other words, 1 out of every 30 adult Filipinos had accessed the services of digital lending platforms at least once a month.

“Our recent analysis of select digital lending services is a clear indication that responsible credit services continue to be an effective means of breaching inequality in accessing financial tools,” Digido country manager Farit Shakirov said.

The average monthly usage duration was 12 minutes and 46 seconds while the duration per session per user was one minute and 14 seconds.

Significant login activity was found to have occurred in March, July and November, which was attributed to certain platforms working with smalland medium-sized businesses.

Digido said the surges could be due to promotions, favorable conditions or the launch of specialized loan products.

It also said that micro, small and medium enterprises remained heavily underfunded and limited in their ability to continuously grow and develop, increasing the opportunities for digital lending platforms.