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Wednesday Nov 06, 2024
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Top professional Ranel Wijesinha yesterday welcomed the new funding support from Commercial Bank to exports.
“Congratulations are due to our own, home grown, Commercial Bank of Ceylon and the World Bank's private sector arm, the IFC, for finally tying up a 50 million US dollar credit which the Commercial Bank will use for COVID-19 hit businesses,” wrote Wijesinha in his LinkedIn post (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-6672871494344933376-6Y8Y).
The credit comes from IFC’s COVID-19 Emergency Response WCS Envelope.
“I have publicly expressed my concern about the lack of adequate responsiveness and timeliness of the country's commercial banks, in rolling out the limited, Central Bank refinanced Covid-19, working capital loans,” he said.
“This is an example to licensed commercial banks, whether they are state-owned or private and public listed and our 'Development Partners" whether they are multilateral or bilateral, to respond to the needs of our nation, in a productive and timely manner, rather than indulge in a luxury of time, that does not exist,” Wijesinha added.
ComBank will provide a total of Rs. 10 billion to COVID-19-hit SMEs at 8% as Rs. 2 to 25 million rupee loans, to women-related businesses, agriculture and export related businesses. The scheme will benefit those that missed a 50 billion rupee central bank re-financed facility.
