The Commercial Bank of Ceylon recently conducted a Financial Literacy Programme for a group of micro entrepreneurs consisting of green leaf suppliers in the Matugama area, in collaboration with the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.
The 164 green leaf suppliers that participated in the programme supply their produce to the Aruna Tea Factory. This was the tenth such event conducted by the Bank for micro and agriculture related entrepreneurs in 2018. The Bank’s objective in conducting these programmes is to enhance the financial literacy levels of such micro entrepreneurs.
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.
The programme was attended by Commercial Bank’s Assistant General Manager – Personal Banking, Mr Delakshan Hettiarachchi, Senior Manager – Development Credit Department, Mr Mohan Fernando, the Bank’s Matugama Branch Manager, Mr A. B. N. Asantha and other officials from the Bank, alongside Mr Ajith Indika, Chairman of the Aruna Group of Companies, Mr Rumesh Hasantha, the Group’s Managing Director, and Dr Kanishka Samarasinghe, the Chief Executive Officer.
Commercial Bank has also supported this customer segment with the launch of a Hybrid Debit Card cum Identification Card powered by Sony ‘FeliCa’ Near Field Communication (NFC) technology. This personalised card enables the automation of the calculation of payments to leaf suppliers. These payments are instantly transmitted to a central server by a data acquisition device, and then transferred to their savings accounts at Commercial Bank.
Commercial Bank has been conducting awareness programmes for micro entrepreneurs in different sectors of business in many areas of the country. The Bank recently reached the milestone of having assisted more than 7000 entrepreneurs through such programmes, within a span of six years.
These programmes are supported by the Bank’s 16 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 are located in Ratnapura, Narammala, Kandy, Anuradhapura, Kilinochchi, Bandarawela, Wellawaya, Hingurakgoda, Galewela, Achchuveli, Vavuniya, Kattankudy, Tissamaharama, Neluwa, Pottuvil and Akkaraipattu.