This paper studies the multi-component Sasa-Satsuma integrable hierarchies via an arbitrary-order matrix spectral problem, based on the zero curvature formulation. A generalized coupled Sasa-Satsuma equation is derived from the multi-component Sasa-Satsuma integrable hierarchies with a bi-Hamiltonian structure. The inverse scattering transform of the generalized coupled Sasa-Satsuma equation is presented by the spatial matrix spectral problem and the Riemann–Hilbert method, which enables us to obtain the N-soliton solutions. And then the dynamics of one- and two-soliton solutions are discussed and presented graphically. Asymptotic analyses of the presented two-soliton solution are finally analyzed.