Micro-scale businessmen receive loans under Citi-CCC Rural Economic Empowerment Program

A group of micro-scale businessmen in the Udappuwa area of the Puttalam District was given loans by Hatton National Bank recently, to expand their businesses under the Citi-CCC Rural Economic Empowerment Program.

Accordingly, 31 entrepreneurs, who were earlier trained by the Citi-CCC Rural Economic Empowerment Program on how to plan, initiate and expand the business and access loans from the formal financial sector, were awarded the loans. Among them were 23 female entrepreneurs who are engaged in tailoring and small scale garments, dry fish processing and selling and running grocery and kerosene oil shops in their locality. Male entrepreneurs are mainly engaged in fishing and fishing related businesses like fishing net repairing.       

Citi Sri Lanka Head of Corporate Affairs Shanaka Waduge, CCC Senior Assistant Secretary General Chandra D. Vithanage and HNB Senior Manager – Development Banking M. V. P. Gunawardena took part in the event, representing their respective entities.

Udappuwa is a rural fishing village in the Puttalam District and situated 23 km north of Chilaw.  The village populace mainly comprises of fishermen and they are predominantly in to seasonal fishing.  During the off season, some of them move to the eastern coast for fishing while others are engaged in daily wage earning activities. Almost all men are involved in fishing during the fishing season. The income of the Udappuwa community members were revealed as season-based and highly-volatile during the off season. 

Due to this, the Citi-CCC Rural Economic Empowerment Program chose Udappuwa village in order to strengthen their feasible livelihood options through various business development services and facilitating the access to finance through formal banking system and to support them with viable business ideas to generate sizable extra income during off seasons.  

Vithanage in his opening remarks thanked Citi for choosing the Chamber to implement this novel project concept. He highlighted that unlike in many business development related projects, this Citi-CCC Rural Economic Empowerment Program focused on offering necessary business development services like business management related capacity building, business plan preparation, linkages and capacity building in technical know-how and technology transfer and market information and market linkages, to graduate them as successful entrepreneurs to access financial services from formal baking system.   

Waduge expressed her great pleasure and satisfaction to see that the majority of the customers who received the HNB loans were female entrepreneurs. She further highlighted that Citi encouraged gender diversity and believed that economically empowering rural women not only ensured the well-being of their immediate family but was also a contributing factor to the overall economic and social development of our country. She advised the Citi CCC Rural Economic Empowerment Project participants to invest the loan capital received in the best effective way and  added that Citi remained committed to Sri Lanka and would continue to remain conscious and responsive to strategic and economic initiatives of the country.

HNB Udappuwa Branch has a client base of 600 customers and Rs. 230 m as outstanding loan portfolio, yet with zero non-performing loans. This branch was the best HNB branch in the region in 2015.

Gunawardena said that with the direct facilitation and coordination of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, HNB was happy to partner with Citi Bank, yet another global bank being existence in 160 countries, for the betterment of the rural men and women to inspire their entrepreneurial activities, initially in their locality.