Thirteen financial institutions that signed Sri Lanka’s Women Entrepreneurs Finance Code approved 36,087 business loans worth roughly Rs. 145.5 billion to women-owned and women-led small businesses in the initiative’s first year, according to its first annual report.
The Annual Report 2025/2026, published by the Department of Development Finance of the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, sets out first-year progress under the code. EconomyNext reported the figures on Wednesday.
The signatory institutions served more than 965,000 micro, small and medium enterprise credit customers in total, of whom over 200,000 were women-owned or women-led businesses.
Sri Lanka adopted the WE Finance Code nationally in March 2025 with technical assistance from the Asian Development Bank, becoming the first country in South Asia to sign up to the global initiative.
A common definition, and data to match
A central element of the code is Sri Lanka’s first unified national definition of what counts as a women-owned or women-led business.
The Central Bank of Sri Lanka has incorporated that definition, along with gender-disaggregated data reporting requirements, into a circular issued to financial institutions. Lenders must now collect and report gender-disaggregated data on their MSME portfolios using the national definition — giving, for the first time, a consistent basis for identifying these enterprises and measuring the financing gap they face.
Why it matters
Women make up 34 percent of Sri Lanka’s economically active population, and women-led businesses operate across agriculture, manufacturing, exports, services, retail and small enterprise development. Many continue to face constraints including limited access to credit.
The code brings together public institutions, regulators, lenders and development partners around four priorities: increasing financing for women-led MSMEs, improving data for decision-making, expanding non-financial support and building a more enabling entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Zahra Cader, ESG, Government and Public Services Leader at Deloitte Sri Lanka and Maldives, said the report was “an important step in moving from commitment to measurable action” and gave stakeholders a stronger evidence base to target support. Deloitte supported the initiative alongside the ministry and the ADB.
The report does not disclose which 13 institutions are signatories, nor a comparable baseline from before the code’s adoption against which the first-year figures could be measured.