3 July 2017 10:17 am
As a result of NDB’s strides to make meaningful change to the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) industry, the bank was felicitated with an award as ‘Best SME Bank Sri Lanka’ by Global Banking and Finance Review 2017. NDB Director/CEO Dimantha Seneviratne said, “We are indeed humbled by the international recognition we have received today. It a testament of the dedication and commitment the bank has extended in developing the SME sector in Sri Lanka. I also wish to thank our staff islandwide for their continuous hard work towards achieving our vision.”
For over three decades, NDB has extended its unwavering support to empower Sri Lankan entrepreneurs towards improving their potential. Initially as a development bank and now as a fully-fledged commercial bank, NDB has from its origin responded to the needs of the SMEs sector by giving adequate support to the SMEs, which are known to be the backbone of any economy.
The bank has well identified the dynamics of SME and has involved in designing new and innovative approaches to reach SMEs. NDB has introduced customized financial propositions for SMEs and has provided capacity enhancement programmes for bank staff to better understand and respond to varied SME needs.
The diversity of available financial products in the strength and understanding dynamics help the bank to give right advice and the right plan at each stage of an SME’s life cycle to support the future success of any SME business. NDB has extended financial assistance to projects in the key growth sub sectors covering tourism, construction, agriculture, manufacturing and service sectors. Taking into account the anticipated growth levels in the tourism industry, the bank has geared up to face the anticipated demand for infrastructure development. A large number of SME hotel projects in all regions of the country including in the Northern and Eastern Provinces have also been assisted.
NDB strongly believes that there is tremendous entrepreneurial potential at the provincial and grass root levels of Sri Lanka. With this potential NDB’s SME and microfinance programmes are geared to leverage it and offer competencies in order to empower the small-scale entrepreneurs. NDB reaches out to diverse range of SME and micro segments, including farmers venturing in to organic paddy cultivation, floriculturists and small-scale street food vendors to name a few.
Coupled with building a strong credit culture among the beneficiary, the bank’s role includes provision of technical knowledge and extension services, often in collaboration with government institutions.
NDB’s network of 106 branches is available in the neediest areas of the country with surging SMEs, whilst making conscious efforts to energize various industries that are unique to respective localities. NDB remains dedicated to bringing its customers one step closer to accomplishing their lifelong ambitions and uplifting their standards of living through the range of services that is accessible through its growing branch network.