The Commercial Bank of Ceylon recently hosted a special programme for more than 100 female entrepreneurs engaged in micro, small and medium enterprises, with business leaders present to share their experiences and knowledge.
The Bank said the event was organised as part of its activities for International Women’s Day, and in line with the Bank’s focus on supporting and building women entrepreneurship.
One of the key highlights of the programme was an exclusive session on the Bank’s digital banking products, presented by the Bank’s Digital Banking Unit. This was arranged in line with this year’s theme for International Women’s Day, “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality” which the Bank said blended well with its focus on providing the best digital banking facilities.
The programme also featured sessions on banking products and services for Women, for SMEs and for exporters which were conducted by the Bank’s SME Managers from Colombo Region, as well as a session on exports conducted by Mrs Nipuni Marasinghe, Export Promotion Officer at the Export Development Board (EDB).
The event was designed to promote financial and digital banking literacy among women and encourage them to take an active role in entrepreneurship, and was attended by Colombo-based women entrepreneurs engaged in a cross-section of industries, the Bank’s corporate customers from leading companies, and representatives of the corporate and senior management of the Bank.
There was also a panel discussion with Mrs Anne Gunasekera, entrepreneur and Founder of Sansara Garments, Mrs Arlene Saparamadu, Director of the Kent Group, Mrs Senela Jayasuriya, Founder and CEO of Women Empowered Global, and Mrs Darshani Jayasinghe, entrepreneur and Founder/Director of DAD Global Trading Pvt Ltd. and DAD Freight Forwarding Pvt Ltd. The programme took place at Commercial Bank’s auditorium at Union Place, Colombo 02.
Sri Lanka’s first 100% carbon neutral bank, the first Sri Lankan bank to be listed among the Top 1000 Banks of the World and the only Sri Lankan bank to be so listed for 12 years consecutively, Commercial Bank operates a network of 270 branches and 950 automated machines in Sri Lanka. Commercial Bank is the largest lender to Sri Lanka’s SME sector and is a leader in digital innovation in the country’s Banking sector. The Bank’s overseas operations encompass Bangladesh, where the Bank operates 20 outlets; Myanmar, where it has a Microfinance company in Nay Pyi Taw; and the Maldives, where the Bank has a fully-fledged Tier I Bank with a majority stake.
