More than 80 percent of the Rs. 95 billion the government set aside this year for micro, small and medium enterprises has been used, with over Rs. 75 billion disbursed as loans by the early part of the third quarter.
The figures come from the Department of Development Finance, Ada Derana reported on Monday. The package was allocated through the 2026 Budget, with Rs. 55 billion of it earmarked specifically for small and medium enterprise development.
Where the money has gone
A total of 6,832 businesses have received financing under five separate loan schemes. The programme is run by the department under the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, working with 15 state and private banks.
The government has mandated that at least 20 percent of lending go to women entrepreneurs and a further 20 percent to young entrepreneurs.
A dedicated disaster loan scheme covers businesses hit by Cyclone Ditwah, offering working-capital loans of up to Rs. 25 million at an annual interest rate of 3 percent. Of the Rs. 10 billion allocated to that scheme, roughly Rs. 8 billion had reached 3,966 affected entrepreneurs by the end of July. More than 90 percent of those beneficiaries are micro and small businesses.
Lending where banks would not
Two strands of the programme target businesses the conventional banking system has closed off.
Seventy businesses classified as non-performing have received a combined Rs. 235 million in working-capital loans despite being unable to secure further finance through normal channels. A further 342 MSMEs that took up government-backed debt restructuring arrangements have resumed trading after reaching agreements with their banks.
Separately, the collateral-free lending programme operated through the National Credit Guarantee Institution has issued guarantees worth about Rs. 9.65 billion covering 2,143 loans. Those guarantees underpin a total loan value of close to Rs. 14 billion, spread across every district in the country.
The department described the broader framework as intended to deliver concessionary financing through participating financial institutions to help enterprises survive, recover and expand.
The update follows earlier reporting that the Industry Ministry had approved Rs. 31 billion in SME loans in the first quarter. It gives no breakdown of how the Rs. 75 billion divides between the five schemes, and does not say what will happen once the allocation is exhausted.
As of late Monday, no other verified Sri Lankan newsroom had published its own report of the figures.
