LFSUS makes low income settlers bankable

"Lanka Financial Services for the Underserved Settlement (LFSUS) is ready to launch its second housing loan project for low income families in Sri Lanka", said Chandula Abeywickrema, Chairman of LFSUS.

"This is a very significant milestone for us as today as we will be launching the project in Kuruniyawatta in Kolonnawa, where we are supporting 52 families to upgrade their households."

LFSUS, a company limited by guarantee supported by the United Nations Human Settlement Program (UN-HABITAT) is working to facilitate and manage its program of work in collaboration with the Government in terms of the Memorandum of Understanding signed in June 2006 between the UN Habitat and the Ministry of Urban Development and Water Supply (now Ministry of Urban Development and Sacred Area Development).

LFSUS becomes a national entity created by multiple stakeholder groups, including national and local government, community organizations and commercial banks, in Sri Lanka, that is created to catalyze local financing of slum upgrading in Sri Lanka.

One of the main objectives of the LFSUS is to facilitate finance inter alia by attracting domestic capital and introducing financial products through banks and micro financial institutions to low-income households to improve their housing and livelihoods in designated areas in Sri Lanka.

The SUF "Finance Plus" approach - building links with the households, communities, government and the local financial markets - helps make a strong, sustainable body that can provide the technical assistance and support to get loans and help ensure they are repaid. "This is the first time that a public/private partnership of this calibre has been formed in Sri Lanka, said Abeywickrema. He said this kind of partnership will mitigate the diverse risks that are involved.

"Our first low income housing project was initiated in Kirulapona, Colombo 5. In this project we worked with the settlements of Kirulapura and Siddharthapura. The Kirulapona project was initiated by SAPSRI (South Asia Partnership for Sri Lanka). I am very happy that we are launching our second housing loan project with Kuruniyawatta in Kolonnawa involving the Sri Lanka Womens Development Services Cooperative Society (Women's Bank) Ltd as the project partner for this project. The selected beneficiaries in this settlement will upgrade their houses completely with the new low cost designs that our Engineers have proposed. This project is different to the earlier project and involved a lot of hard work in mobilizing this community. The loan finance for this project is issued by Hatton National Bank PLC on the guarantee issued by the Trustee Bank of LFSUS, NDB. The inauguration of this project is scheduled to take place today at the Kuruniyawatta Community and I am positive that this initiative will be a success and enable the community to have a healthy and livable surrounding for all."