Organization’s Core Values

Our broad objectives:
To promote socio-economic empowerment of the poor rural and urban Indian population, especially women and other disadvantaged groups like children, the aged, disabled people and outcastes of society.
To create awareness and emphasize the importance of certain best practices to improve the quality of family life (e.g., the use of insurance policies, the benefits of savings, the necessity of family planning and the power of educating female children).
Promote community participation in empowering the disadvantaged through activities, which are implemented and monitored by the community and also transparent and accountable to it.

Brief Historical Overview

Saija Finance Private Limited is a Non Banking Finance Company (NBFC) formed in April 2008 with a focus on providing microfinance services for the urban and rural poor, as well as micro and small businessmen in the underserved geographies of Northern India - Bihar, Jharkhand, Delhi, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and parts of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. SFPL has an aggressive expansion plan aiming to reach over 1,80,000 clients by year three and around 5.25 lakhs by year five.

The geographic regions served by SFPL are amongst the poorest areas of India and also are grossly underserved by formal financial institutions. As such, SFPL is uniquely positioned to bring organized financial services to a large number of poor clients who otherwise would not have access to credit and other financial services on attractive terms. This also presents an appealing business opportunity.

SFPL started with a small portfolio of micro loans, taken over from its associate non-profit entity, Saija Vikas, which was registered as a society in July 2007 under the Societies Registration Act No. 21 of 1860. The company started in July 2007 with a market research survey interviewing 1500 clients in the Patna slums regarding their socio-economic conditions, prevailing economic activities and current access to financial products.

Mr. Sinha, the founder, has a hugely successful track record and a wealth of experience in banking, housing finance and insurance while Mrs. Sinha, the co-founder, has over 25 years experience in the human resources field. Saija is a young MFI having begun operations in its pilot branch in December 2007.