Local pioneers in the field of SME lending, HNB PLC, announced the recent successful conclusion of another capacity building workshop under the theme of ‘Sustainable development empowering the small and medium enterprises’ for clients in the South Western province.
The full day workshop was focused on building knowledge and awareness among SME customers on subjects vital for SME business development including: financial literacy, human resource management, resolving business challenges, ensuring compliance, raising visibility and improving supply chain management across their respective companies.
“HNB is one of the true pioneers in SME lending within the Sri Lankan market for over 125 years. During this time, we have consistently honed our ability to deliver vital access to finance in order to support the needs of a vast and growing base of SME customers. Moving forward we are confident that we will further extend our leadership position, leveraging on an unblemished and highly respected legacy in this segment coupled with an extensive network footprint and complemented by new technological augmentations to our business model.
“HNB remains strongly committed to helping SMEs develop into thriving businesses, with a particular emphasis on export orientation. Through our most recent innovations such as the formation of dedicated SME cells and new technology led services including dealer financing we aim to deliver unprecedented value to our SME clientele while continuing the refinement of our own service delivery. Moving forward we will continue to expand these workshops to other regions as well in order to further strengthen knowledge of our clients.” HNB Deputy General Manager – SME, Jude Fernando explained.
Particularly over the recent past HNB has introduced multiple ground-breaking initiatives to the domestic market. Through its most recent partnership with Bileeta (Pvt) Ltd, HNB unveiled an innovative Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions specifically designed to incorporate SME business models. Such innovations were also showcased at the workshop and proved to be a highly attractive proposition for SME customers participating in the workshop.
The event itself was conducted in partnership with CLOUD Consultancies – a leading educational institute in Sri Lanka. HNB will continue this process in other regions as well in order to further strengthen the financial knowledge of the bank’s valued clients.
“Standing as the first bank to approach the SME sector with much needed financial services specifically catered to their unique requirements, HNB remains deeply conscious of the importance of going beyond basic service delivery. Financial literacy, awareness building and capacity development are vital to ensuring that our SME customers thrive and grow hence we remain committed to maintaining and expanding our capacity building programmes moving forward,” Fernando explained.