Lot’s of very small businesses around the coast were washed away by the tsunami also exposing a major weakness in the micro enterprise financing structure locally. Experts say there were no back up plans to “give currency” to affected businesses.
Micro Finance Institutions (MFI) were not ready to deal with the effects of a large-scale disaster like the tsunami when it hit six months ago.
“In countries like Bangladesh crises situations are common. In Sri Lanka it is new. We have to learn to build the capacity to handle crisis situations,” says Chandula Abeywickrema, DGM, Personal Banking, HNB.
Hatton National Bank (HNB), one of the leading micro financiers in the country, organized a forum with the help of the Foundation for Development Cooperation to discuss post Tsunami micro finance recently.
Most micro finance loans granted here are international donor money on lent by participating banks at low rates of interest.
HNB says they expect micro financing to bounce back strongly in