BOC marks Women’s Day with more strength to Women’s Empowerment
Long term champions of Women’s Empowerment through financial independence, the Bank of Ceylon (BOC) marks International Women’s Day with a special savings offer exclusively for women.
The Kantha Ran Ginum which carries an attractive interest rate has expanded and matured over the years since it was first launched in 1992 to be broad based into a digital format Kantha Ran Ginum Smartgen” to cater to the changing demands of the modern woman. The Savings Certificates are offered in denominations of Rs.25,000, Rs.50,000, Rs.100,000, Rs.250,000 and Rs.500,000.
The United Nation’s 2024 theme for International Women’s Day on March 8, is Invest in Women: accelerate progress. This theme is in direct alignment with the UN declaration of the fifth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of achieving gender equality and empowering all women by 2030. In 2022, the participation of males in the total labour force of Sri Lanka was 70.7% which completely overshadows women, who accounted for only 33.1%.
The Bank of Ceylon’s leadership in financing women entrepreneurship and empowerment through financial self-sufficiency is now legendary. The bank is also a key initiator in assisting and supporting women’s entrepreneurship in the SME sector, with special focus on assisting rural women to be financially selfsufficient through their various micro finance schemes for home-based industries.
The Bank has launched a series of concessionary loan schemes like ‘Divi Udana’ development loan scheme and ‘BOC Mithuru’ SME loan scheme, which have facilitated the creation of women entrepreneurs of all levels of business and contributed towards eliminating the gender gap in our country.
With digitalization, a range of cutting-edge digital banking services like BOC Smart online banking, Bapp mobile banking and Smartpay QR scan mobile app. have enhanced the convenience of BOCS customers. The Bank’s Island wide branch network and over 2,000 touch points spread across the nation ensures enhanced accessibility to the bank services even in outstations and rural areas.
The Kantha Ran Ginum which carries an attractive interest rate has expanded and matured over the years since it was first launched in
1992 to be broad based into a digital format Kantha Ran Ginum Smartgen” to cater to the changing demands of the modern woman
The Bank of Ceylon’s leadership in financing women entrepreneurship and empowerment through financial selfsufficiency is now legendary. The bank is also a key initiator in assisting and supporting women’s entrepreneurship in the SME sector, with special focus on assisting rural women to be financially self-sufficient through their various micro finance schemes for home-based industries
Deputy General Manager, Recovery Provinces, Mrs. Rochelle Fernando says that Kantha Ran Ginum is an unique saving opportunity for women as it offers several additional benefits like instant loans up to 90% of the account balance, life insurance cover up to 10 times of the minimum balance subject to a maximum of Rs.500,000/- (up to 60 years of age), low-interest loans and globally accepted BOC debit/credit cards.