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

Skills training organisations such as WUSC and FORUT, as well as those of the
GoSL are present throughout the region. However, the consultancy believes that
there is a need for INGOs and NGOs operating at Level 2 to develop the capacity
to provide simple business and financial training services to clients who access
production loans thus helping to prepare those seeking to progress to the next
level.
The Entrepreneurial Poor and Micro Entrepreneurs
This group of people are seeking to start-up or expand micro enterprises and often
in need of a broad range of enterprise development services including marketing,
financial and management training activities.
Unfortunately, it was found that there is an almost total absence of effective
professional business and enterprise development service provision in the region
at the micro level, excluding some private IT training activities.
GTZ/CEFE has recently developed 9 new training modules in Tamil that will help
to fill this gap. Currently they have a strong presence in Jaffna, Trincomalee and
Batticaloa and are undertaking the training of some 12 additional trainers for the
North & East Region.
The Small Business Person
This group of people generally require specific and individual business
development services that would normally be facilitated by CoCIs or a Regional
Development Agency, all of which are absent from the region, with the exception
of the District CoCI in Jaffna.
Other Business Development Services
There is a need for other business development services to be provided. These
include market and business research, business linkage and network facilitation,
training of trainers and NGO & INGO management training and capacity
building.
Presently, there is no single institution or organisation within the region that is
supplying or facilitating a range of demand driven business development services.
In the main both the GoSL through ministries and departments and the private
sector through INGOs and private enterprises presently supply these services at
inadequate levels.
Summary
The infrastructure, utilities, services and immobile capital assets of this region
have over the past eighteen years been eroded by conflict resulting in the region’s
economic decline. A large number of communities have been displaced and
formal employment even in the primary industries has fundamentally declined.
The region has been excluded from the major microfinance interventions
managed through and by the central government for the past decade and a half
and although the state and private commercial banks in the region operate current
and savings accounts, access to credit is limited.