Janalakshmi to expand reach of its services

Janalakshmi Financial Services (JFS), the Bangalore-based Microfinance Institution (MFI) promoted by Ramesh Ramanathan, has launched its first JanaOne centre in Bangalore which will try to address all the financial needs for the urban poor.

Each JanaOne centre will work with a specific sub-group of Janalakshmi’s existing group-based customers who have been with the organisation for over two years. Their financial needs are often greater than what can be met by the traditional group-lending model. For such customers, Janalakshmi will define their financial roadmap and offer specific products that a JanaOne centre offers to meet their financial needs. The company also provides a range of financial planning and literacy tools to customers.

Speaking at the launch of JanaOne, V S Radhakrishnan, MD and CEO of Janalakshmi, said, “After over two years of work in understanding the needs of our customers, we can say the bottom of the pyramid is not a monolithic group. But, there is a pyramid at the bottom of the pyramid. For Janalakshmi, we have clustered our customers into three segments — include, nurture and accelerate. Each segment has different capacities, different aspirations and different needs for financial services.” The JanaOne initiative is focused on the third segment. Among the third segment, a large number has been with Janalakshmi for two years over two group loan cycles, are self-employed and fulfill other key characteristics, making them potential accelerator customers. Janalakshmi works with the customers through its JanaOne centres, identifying areas where it can be of help by providing access to a range of financial services.

Over the coming 12 months, the company intends to roll out more JanaOne centres, each of which will be linked with a specific branch of the company.