The latest Financial Literacy and Entrepreneurship Development Programme of the Commercial Bank of Ceylon focused on empowering women in Handapanagala, Wellawaya, when the Bank in collaboration with the Central Bank of Sri Lanka conducted a seminar for 265 members of the Uva Wellassa Women’s Society.
The participants were mainly cultivators of ground nuts, who additionally grow organic vegetables. Beyond enhancing the financial literacy levels of the members of this Society, the Bank’s objective in conducting this programme was to foster financial inclusivity in this unbanked and under-banked segment.
The resource person for the programme was Mr Rohitha Abeykoon, the Senior Assistant Director of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, who is an experienced speaker on financial literacy and business development. Commercial Bank has organised eight similar programmes in 2019 alone, benefitting 1,056 micro-entrepreneurs.
Formed in 2010 to empower rural women, the Uva Wellassa Women’s Society supports female farmers by facilitating cultivation and purchasing the harvest of its members. This protects the farmers of the Society from exploitation and enables them to sell their produce at competitive prices.
Commercial Bank has been conducting awareness programmes for micro-entrepreneurs in different sectors of business in many areas of the country for the past seven years, and has helped more than 9,000 entrepreneurs to date through this series.
These programmes are supported by the Bank’s 17 Agriculture & Micro Finance Units which play a key role in helping the Bank to identify specific needs of entrepreneurs who require assistance to develop either their agriculture activities or micro businesses.
These units are dedicated to promote agriculture lending and micro finance.
Commercial Bank’s Agriculture & Micro Finance Units (AMFU) are located in Ratnapura, Narammala, Kandy, Anuradhapura, Kilinochchi, Bandarawela, Wellawaya, Hingurakgoda, Galewela, Achchuveli, Vavuniya, Kattankudy, Tissamaharama, Neluwa, Mathugama, Pottuvil and Akkaraipattu.
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