Bhartiya Samruddhi Finance (BSFL), the flagship company of Hyderabad-based microfinance firm, Basix Group, is firming up plans to enter into urban micro credit market. The micro finance institution (MFI) is developing a range of micro credit products to meet the needs of urban poor spanning home, health and education sector besides meeting working capital requirements for micro-entrepreneurial activities.

The company expects to expand its urban operations to reach nearly 3 million households in five years. BSFL aims to be present in 100 cities by the end of this year, up from existing 29 cities.

BSFL will soon launch micro credit products to meet the housing and health needs of urban poor. With the proposed products, BSFL could become the first MFI having a portfolio of urban poor-centric mirco credit products.

Sajeev Viswanathan, CEO of BSFL, told Financial Chronicle, “In the first phase of our pilot projects we just acted as a financial intermediary. These projects gave us a good flavour of differences in the housing requirements of rural and urban poor housing market. We will provide assistance in feasibility analysis of a housing project besides tackling water and sanitation challenges.”

urvashijha@mydigitalfc.com