A group of Green leaf suppliers in the Wewelwatta area in Ratnapura were recently hosted to a Financial Literacy Programme conducted by the Commercial Bank of Ceylon, in collaboration with the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. 

The programme was part of a series of such events conducted by the Bank with the objective of enhancing the financial literacy levels of micro entrepreneurs; in this instance, tea leaf suppliers. 

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/SME Mr Delakshan Hettiarachchi; Regional Manager, Uva Sabaragamuwa Region – Mr Elmo Sooriyaarachchi; Manager, Development Credit Department - Mr Malika De Silva; the Finlays Group’s Alupola Estate Superintendent – Mr Asanka Mathawan; and the Bank’s Branch Managers from the Kalawana, Pelmadulla, Ratnapura and Kuruwita areas. 

Notably, Commercial Bank recently launched its third Bank of Wheels operation in the Uva Sabaragamuwa region. Since Wewelwatta too is in this region and is one of the selected towns to benefit from this service, conducting the literacy programme at this time in particular was beneficial, the Bank said. 

Commercial Bank has also supported Green leaf suppliers with 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 for the past eight 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. 

Photo caption : 

Pictured here is Commercial Bank Assistant General Manager - Personal Banking / SME Mr Delakshan Hettiarachchi addressing the audience.