People’s Bank Entrepreneurship Village Competition 2023 winners were recognised and rewarded at a special award ceremony held recently at People’s Bank Staff Training College auditorium in Colombo 5, which was graced by the presence of Chief Executive Officer/General Manager Clive Fonseka. 

People’s Bank introduced the Entrepreneurship Villages concept in 2023 to achieve several key objectives of the bank, which included financially empowering rural communities. The bank aims to achieve this by making available financial and non-financial services and providing concessional credit facilities, to absorb them into the formal banking system. 

The ultimate objective of this programme is to strengthen the entrepreneurial abilities through the financial and non-financial services offered to these groups and help them develop their products to export standards.
To support this endeavour, People’s Bank’s Development and Micro Finance Department launched the Entrepreneurship Village Competition in 2023 to encourage the establishment of small groups of Entrepreneurship Villages at regional level. From a total of 48 People’s Bank Entrepreneurship Villages, 26 qualified for the competition, out of which the 10 best villages were presented with awards.

A large gathering including People’s Bank Deputy General Manager Enterprise Banking Wickrama Narayana, Deputy General Manager Channel Management Naleen Pathiranage, Deputy General Manager Human Resources Manjula Dissanayake, together with the executive management, regional management, senior managers and officers of regional credit divisions, branch managers and other bank staff members participated in the event.