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

The phenomenal growth after 1978 was due to a change in leadership and a
complete re-structuring of the movement building a three-tier structure with
Primary Societies, District Unions and a National Federation. A major focus on
training and education was also commenced and a campus set up in Kegalle for
this purpose.
By end of 2000 there were 8,435 registered societies with 810,250 members
covering 16.09% of Sri Lanka’s population. Of this there were 444,992 (54.9%)
women members and 365,258 (45.1%) male members. Interest charged was 18%
for loans to members and in the year 2000 savings earned an interest rate of
12.5%. However it should be noted that growth of TCCS primary societies has
stopped since 1997 and the statistics also contain a large number of societies that
are no longer functioning.
Table 37 TCCS Loans by type of activity
Category 1999
(SLR)
Agriculture
447,119,860
Animal Husbandry
113,412,024
Small Husbandry
245,160,454
Housing
561,177,150
Electricity
133,261,837
Education
49,066,312
Business
457,778,125
Others
475,936,312
2000
(SLR)
268,730,493
81,715,476
156,091,777
1,393,354,537
34,330,984
61,307,137
273,342,850
575,720,347
Total 2,482,912,074 2,844,593,601
Source: SANASA Statistical Report 2000
Although the TCCS has 8435 registered societies not all of them are active and in
the year 2000 only 1993 societies reported their data to the federation. Of these
active societies 438 had savings over SLR1 million and 27 had over SLR10
million in savings.
Kurunegala is the district with the largest number of primary societies having
over SLR1 million in savings, this district also has unions at divisional level
rather than just at district level. The most active districts are Kurunegala,
Colombo, Kegalle, Galle, Kalutara, Matara and Gampaha all of which topped
annual loan issues of over SLR100 million per year in 2000.