National Microfinance Study of Sri Lanka: Survey of Practices and ...

It is interesting to note the difference in demand between the three districts, with
as much as 51% of the loans valued at 48.2% being from the Matara District, with
the demand from the Hambantota District at 19.7% of the loans in value. This
implies that demand for credit is dependent upon the ability and resources of the
area for economic development. The on time recovery rates of loans ranged from
79.9% to 89.9% and differentiated by district and by agency with the average
recovery rate at 85%. Details are given in the tables below:
Although full data for all of the districts is not available, the statistics for Matara
shows the demand for loans by size.
Table 17 Matara District RRDB And TCCS - Loans by Size
Loans
500K
659 853 868 659 610 155 97 52 10
16.6% 21.5% 21.9% 16.5% 15.4% 3.9% 2.4% 1.3% 0.25%
The above table shows that 76.5% of loans were below SLR 50,000 and that
91.9% were below SLR 100,000 with the normal clientele of both the RRDB and
TCCS being mainly the entrepreneurial poor who seek smaller loans. Demand by
size can be seen by the fact that DFCC whose clients tend towards the ‘middle
class’ gave only 103 loans in Matara seemingly showing that the demand for
larger loans in this area is not high.
The demand for loans by people in their 30s was 63.7% and in the case of women
as much as 48.5% of loans were for those between the years of 36 and 40
showing that there is a demand from a mature group of entrepreneurial poor.
Those below 30 years of age took up only 27.1% of the loans. Also unlike the
socially mobilised projects male borrowers exceeded the women by a significant
proportion.
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