Strong support from ADB to gender specific SME projects
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is promoting women’s entrepreneurship in Sri Lanka through its Micro, Small and Medium (SME) enterprises Line of Credit Project supported by the Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi).
This was stated at the Kingsbury Hotel on Tuesday during a Forum and Panel Discussion organised by the Women’s Chamber of Industry and Commerce (WCIC).
Takuya Hosino, Finance Sector Specialist, ADB, addressing the Forum, said that the bank has been supporting the government in promoting women’s entrepreneurship and towards the success of this project in 2018 ADB has pumped US$12.6 million through We-Fi which helps gender related impact of the project.
He said that the grant will help ADB ensure that more women-owned or led SMEs gave access to finance, training and mentorship opportunities.
Also, it would strengthen the technical capacity of a wide range of stakeholders, including the government, banks, and chambers of commerce and SMEs.
The key targets, he said would include, more than 600 women-owned or led SMEs accessing finance; 700 women accessing the online networking platform and personalised business development training; government agencies and chambers of commerce introducing gender action plans, while partnering banks introduce new policies and banking practices to reach out to women SMEs and rigorous impact evaluation to be carried out and results disseminated.
We-Fi, he said, made an impact to change the culture of participating banks to lend to women-led SMEs and banks have extended the lending portfolio through We-Fi to women-led SMEs.
He said that the capacity of the banks, state agencies and other stakeholders should be strengthened for an integrated approach to transform their behaviours. With the help of We-Fi ADB will foster a more sustainable environment for women entrepreneurs and generate more opportunities to women in Sri Lanka.
He indicated two successful projects in Sri Lanka – one of Ruchirani Munasinghe in a small village in Anuradhapura dealing with commercial guava farming for local community development.
ADB’s financing facility encouraged banks to smoothly process her loan application and as Ruchirani recalled motivated by her early success.
She is now planning to expand her farming to penetrate overseas markets.
The other was of Indumala Rajapaksa from Kandy in giving brides their dream Kandyan-style weddings. Commercial Bank of Ceylon helped Indumala to overcome the challenges and was able to invest in salon facilities in her new Colombo branch and add six new staff to the existing 37 employees.
Chathuri Ranasinghe, Chairperson, WCIC, said that they were happy to note that in the ‘Strategy 2030’ the ADB with the vision – prosperous inclusive resilient sustainable Asia and Pacific – is extending to support women’s economic empowerment, with the expectation that 75 per cent of all ADB projects will promote gender equality.
She emphasised that the Forum endorses that philosophy and is another step in that direction. Along with ADB she indicated that there are seven other partners, including: Bank of Ceylon, Crowdisland, NDB Zephyr and Colombo Stock Exchange.
She asserted that one objective is to work towards increasing the female participation in the workforce from 36 per cent to 40 per cent by 2020 and generate support to enhance their knowledge, skills and competencies.
They strive to be the voice for women entrepreneurs and professions in an attempt to elevate the performance of the ‘Women entrepreneurs’ to greater heights and enhance their contribution to the economy, Ms. Ranasinghe stressed.
Priorities of the WCIC are to harness the members’ economic power in the country gaining recognition and improving their lives while stimulating the socio economic growth. WCIC deals with many innovative projects such as Agromart Foundation, Training Course for Women Migrant Workers, Poverty Alleviation through Entrepreneurship Development and SAARC Chamber Women Entrepreneur Council.
The chamber educates women on the available economic opportunities and helps create new jobs and push forward economic development.