Under the ‘Enterprise Sri Lanka’ subsidized loan scheme designed to create entrepreneurs and boost domestic private investment, the Government has so far disbursed loans worth Rs.79 billion among 46,673 recipients.The ‘Enterprise Sri Lanka’, a concept of Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera was initiated on June 21, 2018. The programme expects to create 100,000 new entrepreneurs by the year 2020.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Finance said the Government efforts to create a fair and equitable environment conducive to domestic private entrepreneurship through ‘Enterprise Sri Lanka’ has been successful so far.The loans under this scheme are issued through the state and the selected private bank branches throughout the country. The government took steps to open loan counters at all the bank branches including in the Northern and the Eastern Provinces.
According to the Spokesperson, a majority of loans obtained so far have been issued under the ‘Sonduru Piyasa’ housing loan scheme. The number of people who have obtained loans under ‘Sondura Piyasa’ is 20,286.“There is a high demand for the ‘Ran Aswenna’ and the ‘Govi Navoda’ schemes introduced for farmers. 17,484 and 3,337 loans have so far been issued under those schemes respectively, the Spokesperson said. The number of loans issued under the ‘Jaya Isura’ scheme is 2,258 loans and for the ‘Rivi Bala Savi’ scheme it is about 1,339 loans,” the spokesman said.