The Commercial Bank of Ceylon conducted a webinar on Financial Literacy and Banking Solutions for Small, Medium and Micro Entrepreneurs recently, in collaboration with the Institute of Certified Management Accountants (CMA) of Sri Lanka.
The live webinar which included a question and answer session was delivered through Zoom. A video of the forum is currently hosted on the Commercial Bank website, Facebook page and YouTube channel for anyone who would be interested to view it.
The programme was launched as a convenient platform to share knowledge in a time of social distancing. It is an attempt to continue the knowledge-sharing and educational sessions that the Bank has been consistently offering via its Entrepreneur Skills Development Programmes to support its SME and Micro customer segments to remain competitive. The webinar was focused on offering pandemic-specific assistance.
Commenting on the webinar, Commercial Bank Deputy General Manager Personal Banking Mrs Sandra Walgama said: “Commercial Bank has always kept up with the needs of the times and leveraged technology to serve its customers better. The webinar was launched not only to create awareness of our pandemic-related support programmes and to nurture business acumen specifically needed during tough times, but especially to reassure our customers and non-customers of our continued commitment to develop the SME and Micro sectors.”
Subjects covered in the webinar included, preparation of business plans, cash flow documents, profit & loss sheets and business analyses in order to understand the impact of the pandemic on business and insights on managing, monitoring and measuring business performance to stay viable and profitable. Directions on how to get financial assistance from the Bank, and information on the release of loan funds and subsequent monitoring involved to ensure beneficial utilisation of these funds was also provided along with information on how to make the best use of the COVID-19 loan schemes launched by the Bank for both SME and the Micro business sectors and on the reduced lending rates offered by the Bank.
Participants received both financial and non-financial advice from qualified, prominent figures in the industry and had the opportunity to interact live with Bank officials, further strengthening the relationship between the Bank and its customers. The resource persons for the webinar included Dr Chamara Bandara – Founder of Corporate Doctors (Pvt) Ltd., Mr Ruchira A. Perera – Group CFO of Concord Apparel (Pvt) Ltd. and Messrs Mohan Fernando – Senior Manager Development Credit and Prasanna Jayamaha – Manager Development Credit at Commercial Bank. The Moderator was Mr Dilshan Fernando – the Bank’s Manager SME.
Commercial Bank, through its 18 Agriculture & Micro Finance Units, has also been conducting awareness programmes for micro-entrepreneurs in many areas of the country for the past nine years, and has helped more than 11,000 entrepreneurs to date through this series.
The Bank’s Agriculture & Micro Financing Units play a key role in helping the Bank to identify specific needs of entrepreneurs who require assistance to develop their agriculture activities or micro businesses.
Commercial Bank’s Agriculture & Micro Finance Units (AMFUs) dedicated to promote agriculture lending and micro financing are located in Ratnapura, Narammala, Kandy, Anuradhapura, Kilinochchi, Bandarawela, Wellawaya, Hingurakgoda, Galewela, Achchuveli, Vavuniya, Kattankudy, Tissamaharama, Neluwa, Matugama, Pottuvil, Akkaraipattu and Nawalapitiya.