Expolanka drives entrepreneurship spirit amongst senior citizens through microfinance

Commenting on the project, Paddy Weerasekera, Head of Marketing, Corporate Communications and CSR, said, "Sri Lanka is one of the countries in the Asia that has the fastest ageing population. This increasing proportion of senior citizens will make significant economic and social changes in the country. If no proactive action is taken to cope up with such changes, there will be unprecedented results leading to a significant destruction of the social fabric that has been maintained.”

Expolanka's CSR arm, in an effort to help address an emerging social problem in Sri Lanka, initiated a microfinance project in collaboration with HelpAge Sri Lanka (HASL) to fund senior citizens to embark on entrepreneurship projects of their own.

In order to establish a sustainable eco-system of entrepreneurship by senior citizens, the project aims to conduct a fully-fledged programme that includes forming senior citizen committees (SCCs), training each SCC on starting selfemployment activities, accounting, advocacy, lobbying as well as training the committees to provide care for the more vulnerable amongst them, the company said last week.

Commenting on the project, Paddy Weerasekera, Head of Marketing, Corporate Communications and CSR, said, "Sri Lanka is one of the countries in the Asia that has the fastest ageing population. This increasing proportion of senior citizens will make significant economic and social changes in the country.

If no proactive action is taken to cope up with such changes, there will be unprecedented results leading to a significant destruction of the social fabric that has been maintained. As a group with an entrepreneurial beginning, Expolanka has always supported entrepreneurship in the country.

In the same spirit, we decided to lend a hand in initiating sustainable project to address this issue."

According to social and economic predictions, population ageing will significantly change the age composition of the labour force, with the share of workers younger than 30 years significantly shrinking and the share of workers older than 50 years strongly increasing. If senior citizens are not contributing to the national economy, the growth of GDP will slow down.

Speaking about the initiative, Samantha Liyanawaduge, Executive Director of HASL said, "There are large numbers of potential senior entrepreneurs who can still run self-employment in a sustainable manner, but currently inactive due to difficulties in accessing for required capital. It is the right time that Expolanka has decided to embark on a microfinance project in collaboration with us to provide necessary capi- tal to start on livelihood activities for senior citizens. Income generated by senior citizens will not only make them less dependent on their family members, but will also help their families, particularly the lives of their grandchildren."