Sarvodaya Development Finance launches with noble goals

By Madushka Balasuriya

‘Mixed feelings’ was how founder of the Sarvodaya Movement Dr. A.T. Ariyaratne described his emotions at the launch event for Sarvodaya Development Finance Ltd. in Colombo on Friday.

Under Sarvodaya Development Finance Ltd., formerly known as Deshodaya Development Finance Company Ltd. (DDFC) – a subsidiary of the Sarvodaya Economic Enterprise Development Service (SEEDS) – micro credit will remain the core business. Serving predominantly rural communities out of 60 outlets island-wide, the company will look at financial support specifically in the areas of empowering women and employment generation. With a customer base of 125,000 of which 55% are women the company will also look at introducing new and innovative products to their portfolio.

However at the press conference announcing the rebrand, Dr. Ariyaratne’s joy at the culmination of a journey that began in ‘dark and dingy huts…sharing lives with the poorest of the poor’, was tempered by the fact that his brainchild now needed to become ‘a part of the existing socio-economic system that is dominating the world’ in order to grow.

“The poor are becoming poorer and the few rich people are becoming richer. I conceived a different kind of socio-economic order, but we have to live with the times. In actual fact, the present western economy has nothing to do with social wealth. As you know, the biggest frauds in the world are carried out by the biggest financial companies,” added Dr. Ariyaratne, addressing an audience which included various stakeholders such as Director of Sarvodaya Finance and General Secretary of the Sarvodaya Movement Dr. Vinya Ariyaratne, the Chairman of the Board veteran banker Eastman Narangoda, Chief Executive Officer Ravindran Ranjith, members of the board, senior management and members of the media.

Following Sarvodaya principles, the company will follow all ethical practices in selecting projects for funding. Accordingly, projects or businesses that involve gambling, manufacture or sale of liquor or harmful drugs, weapons, slaughter of animals and projects that are harmful to the environment will not be given any consideration. This social responsibility was a point heavily emphasised by Dr. Ariyaratne.

“‘Sarva’ means all, ‘Udaya’ means awakening; awakening of all human beings, awakening of all living beings, awakening of all nature,” he pointed out, revealing the meaning behind the new name.

“In my lifetime I don’t want to see a single creature being destroyed for our economic development. I don’t like to see nature being destroyed. I don’t like to see even an inch of soil being polluted by lethal chemicals and other things.”

Dr. Ariyaratne also took aim at the capitalist priorities of many banks and financial institutions.

“If you take the totality of the wealth we have and find out what percentage of that goes to various sections of humanity; how much do the poor people get? We will feel ashamed that we have robbed them to make our profit. I don’t wish to see Sarvodaya Development Bank saying ‘we are the leading bank in the country, making the maximum profit’. Instead I would like to see us say ‘we have made more losses, we are paying decent salaries to our staff, but at the same time we our doing our business in a just and fair way where we’re not robbing the people’. Can we make a living like that in this competitive world? I think we can.”

Overall, Dr. Ariyaratne’s message was summarised by a final self-reflective thought which he posed to the audience. “Live a happy life, but remember, when you breathe your last you should be able to ask yourself ‘how much have I done for my fellow human beings?’”  

Future plans

Meanwhile Sarvodaya Development Finance Ltd. Chairman Eastman Narangoda spoke on the future plans for the company. “As a strategy to improve our business we will also look at the lower end of the Small and Medium (SME) sector. Through this objective we will move into leasing for SME and Micro customers and develop loan products as well. As a long term plan we will work tirelessly to transform our company into a Development Bank. Our aim is to uplift families and communities, and help eradicate poverty in the country to some extent.”