Saija Finance, a non-banking finance company (NBFC) commemorates its 10th year of improving the lives of rural women in India at an event called GARIMA. The company initiated operations in 2008 at Patna.
Bihar remains one of the poorest states in India and is home to over 120 million people. Over 60 % of the population falls in the underserved category. Bihar also did not have a successful Bank / NBFC since the formation of the state a hundred years ago. Hence both the need and the challenge to set up a successful bank in the state of Bihar. It is in this backdrop, that Mr.S R Sinha and Mrs. RashmiSinha launched the Microfinance initiative in Bihar in 2008.
On this special occasion, Mr. Sinha, CMD, Saija Finance says, “As Saija completes 10 successful years of business operations, we are well poised to become a scheduled commercial bank with a strong base in the state of Bihar. We take this opportunity to extend my sincere gratitude to over six lacs of our women clients whose creditworthiness and disciplined conduct has been the key to the success of Saija. We also sincerely thank my dedicated workforce, many of whom successfully completing 10 years at Saija. We would like to thankAccion, a global nonprofit dedicated to creating a financially inclusive world and our partner for the last ten years. Thanks to Saija’s eminent and illustrious Board members, whose monitoring and guidance have helped us create a thriving organization. We have also received strong support by way of equity, loans and grants from Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC), Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) and capital First (now IDFC First Bank) during this journey.
Congratulating Saija on this very occasion, Mr. Michael Schlein, CEO at Accion expresses, “Promoting financial inclusion in rural India is critical, and leaders like Saija, who are operating in areas of Bihar, Jharkhand, are demonstrating innovative ways to challenge geography to build a financially inclusive platform that offers services to the most vulnerable and economically active section of society,” said Michael Schlein, President, and CEO of Accion. Accion has partnered with Saija since its seed stage, and Saija’s growth, success, and focus on delivering inclusive financial services to underserved clients has made them a great Accion partner over the last decade. Congratulations to Saija on this important milestone.”
Over the last 4 years, Saija and Greenlight Planet have been instrumental in delivering clean energy access to more than 6 lakh individuals in India. From the time we began our partnership with them, we were assured that it would be a long-lasting relationship. We congratulate them on completing 10 years of operations in India and wish them all the luck for a successful future”, saysMr. Sahil Khanna, Partnerships Business Leader, Asia at Greenlight Planet, a leading solar home energy company that helps Saija works towards energy inclusion for rural India.
