ComBank expands ‘Dirishakthi’ scheme to transform value chains in rural Sri Lanka
The Commercial Bank of Ceylon has embarked on an initiative to transform the way it supports micro entrepreneurs using its ‘Dirishakthi’ loans programme as the platform for a wider and holistic intervention encompassing financing and empowerment activities.
The Bank has announced that the Dirishakthi scheme launched to finance commercially viable livelihood opportunities at the grassroots level, has been enhanced to benefit not just individual borrowers but all participants in their value chains, further underwriting the prospects for success and growth.
The enhancements have been designed to increase the capacity of microentrepreneurs’ production chains by providing both financial and non-financial services and have been brought under the twin umbrellas of the ‘Dirishakthi Value Chain Development Programme’ and the ‘Dirishakthi Sustainable Entrepreneurship Development Programme’ that encompasses sustainability initiatives as well as knowledge development and capacity building.
The Dirishakthi Value Chain Development Programme is designed to increase the productivity and profitability of an entire value chain by understanding the needs of the private and public partners involved in it, from the point of production to end-consumer. From an agricultural perspective, the scheme is created to assist entrepreneurs from ‘farm to fork,’ the Bank said.
With this new development, the Bank will identify all participants in a value chain with the assistance of existing customers or Community Based Organisations (CBOs), provide financial services by reaching vulnerableplayers in the community such as women entrepreneurs and low-income individuals via coordinatorsof its Agriculture and Micro Finance Units (AMFUs) who will actively approach these members toprovide personalizedsupport. They will identify obstacles which hinder the efficiency of the value chain and solvecash flow and capacity issues, provide fund transfer facilities to remit sales proceeds and to pay suppliers through the formal banking sector, and improve technical knowledge and entrepreneurship skills of value chain members with the objective of improving the quality of the products and services they offer.
Under this initiative, the Bank will also facilitate new marketing opportunities to its members by linking them with its SME and corporate clients and provide cash in and cash out (CICO) services through the operations of the Automated Field Cash Collection (AFCC) and the Bank of Wheels (BOW)facility which is a fully-fledged mobile bank branch with a Cash Recycler Machine (CRM) and two teller counters.
Besides conducting financial literacy programmes, theDirishakthi Sustainable Entrepreneurship Development programmeincludes networking opportunities for members, consulting and mentoring services, and training and capacity building with emphasis on financial inclusion and environmental sustainability.
Under this, microentrepreneurs are provided space to display their products and establish connections with potential buyers and business partners that could influence sales, providedsaplingsin the spirit of encouraging environmental protection, and are continuously assessed by the Bank’s AMFUs andDevelopment Credit Department (DCD) to ascertain the effectiveness of the programme and its impact on the participants’ economic and social development.
The programme will also influence the use of single-use plastic among participants’ value chains and raise awareness about how it pollutes the environment. Furthermore, the Bank said its DCD plans to assist entrepreneurs to gain exposure on digital marketplaces by supporting them to trade their products via virtual platforms.
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