More than 100 dairy farmers in the Mulliyawalai area in the Mullaitivu District benefitted from a Financial Literacy and Entrepreneurship Development programme conducted recently by the Development Credit Department of the Commercial Bank of Ceylon, in collaboration with the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.
Organised by the Bank’s Mulliyawalai branch, the programme was attended by dairy farmers from Mamunai, Silawaththai, Alampil and Kumulamunai, and was held at the Kumulamunai Community Hall. This was part of a series of such events conducted by the Bank with the objective of enhancing the financial literacy levels of micro entrepreneurs.
The main presentation on financial literacy was made by Mr B.Sivatheepan, the Northern Regional Manager of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. Adding value to the experience of the participants, officers of Commercial Bank’s Agriculture & Micro Finance Unit also made a presentation on the Bank’s many financial products and tools available for farmers to develop their trade.
A presentation on industry-related good practices for the dairy farming sector was made by Dr T.Nigethini, a Government Veterinary Surgeon.
The programme aimed to enhance awareness on technical knowledge related to dairy farming and financial literacy. The entire session was an “open forum” and invited participants to ask questions from the resource persons and clear any doubts they had.
This was a first programme of this nature to be hosted by a branch in this particular locality, and it created an opportunity to introduce relevant services offered by the Commercial Bank for the benefit of this segment, the Bank said.
The programme was attended by Commercial Bank’s Manager-SME Mr Dilshan Fernando, the Bank’s Mulliyawalai Branch Manager Mr K.Suthanan, and other officials.
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 8,000 entrepreneurs to date through this series.
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 (AMFU) are located in Ratnapura, Narammala, Kandy, Anuradhapura, Kilinochchi, Bandarawela, Wellawaya, Hingurakgoda, Galewela, Achchuveli, Vavuniya, Kattankudy, Tissamaharama, Neluwa, Pottuvil and Akkaraipattu.