Commercial Bank of Ceylon recently extended its support to sea weed cultivators in the Northwest of Sri Lanka, as part of the bank’s ongoing initiative to empower small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and micro entrepreneurs with the technical knowledge and financial literacy required to develop their businesses.
The latest programme organised by Commercial Bank’s Mannar branch and the bank’s Agriculture and Micro Finance Unit (AMFU) of Vavuniya and Mannar, benefitted 120 sea weed cultivators from the Silawathurai, Mutharipputhurai and Arippu areas. The programme was conducted with the assistance of Hayleys Aquagri (Pvt.) Ltd and the Central Bank of Sri Lanka – Northern Regional Office.
Presentations were made by Central Bank of Sri Lanka Northern Region Senior Manager Ranjini Vijayalan on Financial Literacy and by Aquagri Processing (Pvt.) Ltd General Manager Research and Development Dr. M. Shanmugam and Hayleys Aquagri Head of Business Operations K. Sivaram.
Commercial Bank Regional Manager Northern Region Roy Nicholas and Hayleys Aquagri (Pvt.) Ltd Director Ruwan Rajapakse and bank’s Development Credit Department Executive Officer Prasanna Jayamaha were among the special guests at the seminar.
The bank also used the opportunity to introduce its new ‘Divisaru’ savings scheme to the micro entrepreneurs and participants and with the assistance of the bank’s Development Credit Department, to make them aware of the loan schemes available under Development Credit Lending.