Berendina expands microfinance services to Horowpathana
Berendina Micro Investments Ltd opened its first branch in Horowpathana in the Anuradhapura District recently.
Berendina Micro Investments Ltd is established to extend the microfinance services of the Berendina group, which has been so far done under the Berendina Microfinance Institute ( BMI) ( GTE) Limited, which has been operation in Sri Lanka since 2007 and has been assisting the rural poor and plantation communities with micro credit and enterprise development services through an 18-branch network covering six districts.
The Horowpathana branch will be the Berendina group’s fifth microfinance branch in the Anuradhapura District. Currently, BMI operates branches in the Manupa ( Anuradhapura town), Ipalogama, Kahatagasdigiliya and Thirappane areas of t he district.
In 2015, as part of a strategic decision, the Berendina group formed a new organisation called Berendina Micro Investments Ltd, which will function i n parallel with BMI. All services provided by BMI will be continued with Berendina Micro Investments and an increase in service quality is envisaged with this strategic change.
The chief guest at the Horowpathana branch opening was BerendinaG Director and Berendina Micro Investments Chairman Anura Attapattu while Director/General Manager Charith Fernando and BMI Operations Manager Ishan Rajika, were the guests of honour at the event.
Assistant Divisional Secretary R. Senthil and Senior Inspector of Police S u n e t h Wa r n a s u r i y a , Grama Niladhari S. Thilakaratne were special invitees who spoke on the importance of having an organisation such as Berendina for the Horowpathana area. The representatives of other development organisations and people who will benefit from Berendina also participated in the occasion.
As of February 28, 2015, Berendina’s microfinance operations consisted of 69,433 borrowers with an outstanding loan portfolio of over Rs.1.5 billion. Berendina provides loans at the lowest interest rate by any private sector or NGO organisation.