Combank improves green leaf suppliers’ financial literacy
A group of green leaf suppliers in the Wewelwatta area in Ratnapura were recently hosted to a financial literacy programme conducted by 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 Central Bank of Sri Lanka Senior Assistant Director Rohitha Abeykoon, who is an experienced speaker on financial literacy and business development.
The programme was attended by Commercial Bank Assistant General Manager Personal Banking/sme Delakshan Hettiarachchi, Uva Sabaragamuwa Region Regional Manager Elmo Sooriyaarachchi, Development Credit Department Manager Malika De Silva, Finlays Group Alupola Estate Superintendent 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.