HNB to empower and enable Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in Sri Lanka through e-commerce partne

SME Deputy General Manager Jude Fernando exchanging the MOU with Web-X-pay 

Co-Founder and CEO Omar Sahib while (from left): HNB SME Business Development Senior Manager Niluka Amarasinghe, HNB Head of Cards Roshantha Jayatunge and Web-X-pay Business Development Manager Nauchelli Fernando look on

Sri Lanka’s most digitally innovative bank, HNB PLC announced a breakthrough partnership with e-commerce Software as a Service (SaaS) provider, WEBXPAY, to launch an integrated e-commerce platform aimed at empowering Micro, Small and Medium businesses in Sri Lanka to adapt to e-commerce.

With technology driven paradigms engulfing all walks of life in Sri Lanka, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) too are seeking cost effective solutions capable of serving as a gateway into the island’s rapidly expanding e-commerce market. 

Having consistently served as a ‘Partner in Progress’ to SMEs across the country for decades, HNB announced that it would be launching a island-wide program across all of its 252 Customer Centre, the bank is ideally positioned to enable a cashless payments revolution in Sri Lanka. 

WEBXPAY, a startup who has been in business for about 10 months and who profess to be the ‘Face of Change in Sri Lanka’ have already on-boarded over 450 merchants into their platform, and these merchants are transacting and reaching out to not only a larger share of the Sri Lankan market, but also generating sales out of far out markets like the USA.

Commenting on the groundbreaking partnership with WEBXPAY, HNB Managing Director/CEO Jonathan Alles said: “MSMEs are the backbone of the Sri Lankan economy, contributing a significant proportion of for a large slice of the Country’s GDP, despite lagging behind the larger businesses due to limited access to financial services and technology based on cost factors and complexity. This program will provide MSMEs in Sri Lanka a cost effective and easy to use all-in-one solution to compete with their larger counterparts on equal footing.”

He went on note that: “Apart from the economic benefit to these MSMEs, the Socio-Economic Developmental impact of this program will be massive, as this program will sustainably contribute to Financial Inclusion, Inclusive Growth, Job Creation, Women Empowerment, Skill Development, Access to Finance, Access to Markets, Opportunity to Compete and Poverty Alleviation.”

Placing particular emphasis on the island’s booming tourism sector, Alles pointed out that while Sri Lanka had over 7,700 properties listed, in excess of 90% of these properties lacked an efficient platform to transact online; another area which he believes HNB’s partnership with WEBXPAY will yield valuable benefits from SMEs. 

WEBXPAY Founder/Director Nazeem Mohamed said, “After being in the payments industry for over two decades, together with my co-founders Omar Sahib and Sajith Chanuka, we identified a big void in the marketplace where MSMEs lacked access to a cost-effective solution to compete globally on an equal footing. To fill this void, we developed our suite of cost effective products, and our current portfolio of 450 merchants in a period of 10 months (Compared to 1,000 businesses transacting through e-commerce over a 13-year period) is testament to our thesis. Our mission is to be the ‘Face of Change in Sri Lanka’, and with support from our ‘Partner in Progress’, HNB we are targeting to increase our merchant portfolio to 20,000 in five years. We are privileged to be partnering with HNB in their mission to empower and enable MSMEs in Sri Lanka through e-commerce.”