‘Farmer Banking Week’ begins

The first-ever ‘Farmer Banking Week’ has begun in the country in line with a pledge given in the ‘Mahinda Chinthana – Vision for the Future’ that the farmer banking system will be strengthened further and action will be taken to provide all the loans required by farmers.                 

The week runs until 24 October.

During this week banking activities in the farmer banks will be promoted.  Under this banking week programme, plans are in the pipeline to intensify promotion activities of the banks, get repayment of pending loan instalments, promote shares and deposits, intensify issuing of loans, strengthen small farmer groups, enroll each and every farmer as members of the banks and target the scope of loan issues.

The most active 100 farmer banks in the island will be selected during this week and the loan ceilings of these banks will be increased to Rs. 100,000 from the current amount of Rs. 25,000.

These programmes will be held in the Districts of Kalutara, Ratnapura, Puttalam and Anuradhapura today and in the Anuradhapura District they will be also held on 19, 21 and 24 October.  In the Matara and Kandy Districts, the programmes will be held on 19 October and in Kurunegala and Kegalle Districts on 21 October and in the Nuwara Eliya District on 24 October.