Gambling, liquor or companies involved in harming environment won’t get micro credit from Sarvodaya Finance, says Dr. A.T. Ariyaratne
View(s):The Deshodaya Development Finance Company (DDFC) Ltd, a subsidiary of the Sarvodaya Economy Enterprise Development Service (SEEDS), was re-launched as the Sarvodaya Development Finance Ltd last week. DDFC has been providing financial services to the nation during the past 25 years under Sarvodaya Economic Enterprise (SEEDS) and subsequently named as the Deshodaya Development Finance Company (DDFC).
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Sarvodaya Development Finance Ltd, Ravindra Ranjith told reporters that the bank operates through 500 Sarvodaya Shramadana branch societies and has 125,0000 customers of which 55 per cent are women. “We have 60 customer touch points in the country and the deposit base of the bank is Rs. 3 billion. We maintain a good loan portfolio and disburse around 4000 loans per month. The average size of the loan portfolio is about Rs. 50,000 and we have 55,000 borrowers of which 75 are women. The total asset base of the company is Rs 4.2 billion and the capital is Rs. 1 billion,” he said.
Referring to Professor Muhamad Yunus who introduced micro finance to Bangladesh and who once said that in his experience poor people were the world’s greatest entrepreneurs, Mr. Ranjith said that every day they must innovate in order to survive. They remain poor because they don’t have an opportunity to turn their creativity into sustainable income. He said Sarvodaya founder Dr. A.T. Ariyaratne also had remarked that they cannot make every poor person rich but can bring the poor out of poverty.
Dr. Ariyaratne said that he never imagined that the Sarvodaya movement would become part of the existing socio economic system dominating the world, where the poor was becoming poor and the few rich people were becoming richer. He said the biggest frauds were being perpetrated by the biggest financial companies in the world according to proven facts. “In my lifetime I do not want a single creature to be destroyed for economic development and an inch of soil being polluted by lethal chemicals and other things. I do not like to see any poisonous stuff being introduced into foodstuff for the sake of profit.”
He said he does not wish to say that his finance company was making a profit of millions but would rather see it as a bank paying decent salaries to its employees and paying taxes to the state without making a loss. He said the present economic system was based on labour whether it was physical or intellectual labour. It was based on an artificial thing called the money and nothing to do with social wealth. “Can we build up an economy based on such facts? I think we can,” he said.
According to Sarvodaya Development Finance Ltdd, micro credit remains the core business serving rural communities empowering women and employment generation. However according Sarvodaya principles, businesses that involve gambling, manufacture and sale of liquor, harmful drugs, weapons, slaughter of animals and projects harmful to the environment will not be given any consideration.
Director of the Sarvodaya Finance and General Secretary of the Sarvodaya Movement, Dr. Vinya Ariyaratne said that for many years SEEDS provided micro finance to members of rural communities in the country. He said for 25 years SEEDS provided various financial services to the rural communities of Sri Lanka. It contributed Rs. 540 million to become the primary shareholder of the newly created Sarvodaya Development Finance Ltd. “We also have a Japanese publishing company as another shareholder of the bank.”
Company Chairman Eastman Narangoda said every household in the country was familiar with Sarvodaya as it was a strong and vibrant name. Sarvodaya Development Finance Limited will take business to a new era. Micro credit will be the core business of the company and they will also concentrate on small and medium sectors of businesses (SMEs) to generate employment without exploiting them.
Others who participated at the launch were the Deputy Chairman of the Sarvodaya Development Finance – Channa de Silva and Non-Executive Directors K.L Gunawardena and Shevon C.P. Gooneratne.