The Small and Medium Enterprise Development Facility (SMEDeF) Project, Ministry of Finance and Planning   and the Ceylon Chamber jointly conducted two training programs for Southern entrepreneurs in a bid to enhance their entrepreneurial skills.

The programs, held recently comes out as a part of a series of “Entrepreneurship Development Training Programs for SMEs,” the SMEDeF project, Ministry of Finance and Planning  and CCC are jointly conducting, covering many regions of the Island, to help SMEs carry out their businesses in a sustainable manner.

The training programs are organized under the SMEDeF Project implemented by the Ministry of Finance and Planning with World Bank funding.  The SMEDeF Project has provided financial assistance to a large number of SMEs operating in all parts of the Country.

Accordingly, the first training program was held in the Galle District in collaboration with the Galle District Chambers of Commerce and Industry and around 100 small and medium entrepreneurs participated for this training programme.

The second program of the series was held in the Matara District in collaboration with the Matara District Chamber of Commerce & Industry for which more than 110 entrepreneurs representing various types of businesses participated.

Among the panelists for the two programs, were Chandraratna Vithanage, Senior Assistant Secretary General (Projects) of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce. Muditha Hettigama, a Chartered Management Accountant, who has over 12 years of experience in training entrepreneurs, Nusith Kumarasinghe, a specialist in Business Advisory Affairs, Uresha Walpitagama, Finance Manager of the SMEDeF project and Chamath Abeysinghe, Environment Specialist, SMEDeF project.

Entrepreneurship and identifying business opportunities, Business Planning and Preparation of a Business Plan, Environmental Sustainability and Pollution Control by SMEs, Financial Literacy, Common Financial Management Mistakes of SMEs and Importance of Accounting and record keeping for SMEs, Prudent Cash Flow Management and Avoiding Financial Crisis, Laws and regulations needed to carry out the business,  Tax and physical incentives available for SMEs and currently available credit schemes, were the topics that came under the forums discussion.

Each training programme was followed by a panel discussion with the participation of resource persons, Officials of SMEDeF Project and representatives of Banks implementing the SMEDeF Project.

“We are very happy with this program, as it gave us a good overall understanding of how to conduct a business by identifying opportunities and also managing risks,” said a participant.

Another participant said, “I got an understanding on how to manage my finances, how to approach banks to borrow, and also how to find market access for my products”

A large number of participants highlighted the need for extending this training program to the Divisional Secretarial level and requested to conduct training programs of this nature more often.

The SMEDeF project and the Ceylon Chamber have planned the next entrepreneurship development training programs in Nuwara-eliya, Kandy, Vavuniya and Jaffna Districts.