HSBC helps educate microfinance recipients

HSBC last month began a series of workshops on financial literacy for women from urban, low-income families in Mutwal and Kirulapone. Starting on September 16 and continuing each weekend and ending on Saturday, October 7, the half-day workshops were the second phase of the bank’s urban microfinance programme.

Since many of the women are running businesses as well as homes and families, the financial literacy sessions are aimed at helping the women to achieve their full potential in business in order to become empowered entrepreneurs. “These workshops will teach the women better ways of managing their earnings, to plan for the long-term, to plan for important events and to budget and record expenses. In addition, these workshops will introduce them to basic financial products (deposits and loans) and show how interest and inflation affect their plans – lessons that are essential if the women are to be efficient and successful entrepreneurs,” Shiroma Jayawickrama, Manager, Public Affairs, HSBC was quoted as saying in a press release. In June 2006, HSBC launched the urban microfinance programme as part of its commitment to empower women and alleviate poverty in Sri Lanka. Conducted in collaboration with South Asia Partnership Sri Lanka (SAPSRI) and titled ‘Empowering Urban Women Entrepreneurs’, the programme aims to lend money to women entrepreneurs. “In the long-term, the objective is also to bring them closer to mainstream banking, relieving them from money-lenders who lend at very high rates,” Jayawickrama said.