While marking the 75 th International Credit Union Day, also referred as Sacco Day in Kenya, Kilifi County, led by the Deputy Governor Hon. Flora Mbetsa joined the cooperative leaders, stakeholders, partners and Sacco members in celebrating the auspicious occasion aimed at recognizing the fundamental roles played by the sector to eradicate poverty and create wealth through mobilization of financial resources for development.
The celebrations, themed ‘Financial Wellness and Member Empowerment’ saw representatives of hundreds of Kilifi based saccos gather at Mnarani Club in Mnarani ward to appreciate the positive impact made by saccos in transforming people’s lives around the globe through creation of innovative and timely products and services that meet members’ daily needs.
Other than being a champion for better and quality life, the Sacco movement in Kilifi County has over the years been a crucial player in the county’s economy, cutting across the various sectors including mining, agriculture, manufacturing, transport, housing among others.
Speaking to the cooperators, the Deputy Governor stated that the county’s saccos had mobilized deposits to a tune of over ksh 8 billion and given out loans in excess of ksh 10 billion that went into transforming and improving Kilifi residents’ living standards.
“These loans have been channeled into productive use such as educating our children, building houses and rental property for businesses and meeting emergency needs,” she said.
Additionally, to enhance the movement’s efforts, she encouraged the cooperators to establish policies that enhance inclusivity through gender and youth mainstreaming, allowing more women and young people to occupy leadership positions and actively take part in decision making.
On education and training, the county’s second boss stressed on the significance of coming up with sensitization programs geared towards creating awareness on the cooperative business model targeting the youth in bodaboda, mama mbogas, and SMEs with a view of bringing them into the transformative movement.
“The future of saccos is in embracing technology and innovative solutions in saccos’ operations for efficiency and effectiveness. Technology enables members to quickly access their accounts, apply for loans and track their financial progress,” added Hon. Mbetsa.
The County’s CEC for Trade, Tourism and Cooperative Development Hon. Clara Chonga, addressing the members urged the cooperators to diversify their services and explore offering broader range of financial products and services such as insurance, investment opportunities and financial advisory services.
She said financial wellness was about how we managed our economic life, and whether we felt secure financially and had the financial freedom to make choices adding that saccos’ core objective was to improve the economic welfare of their members through the products and services they developed.
As at 30 th September this year, Kilifi County had a total number of 353 registered cooperatives, out of which 234, representing 66%, were sacco societies with over two hundred thousand members.
For the societies to thrive, Hon. Chonga reminded the leaders to always maintain a culture of transparency and good governance within the sacco management.
“Members must trust that their funds are being managed prudently and for their benefit,” advised Hon. Chonga.
Kilifi County, she revealed, through H.E the Governor, has been rallying residents from all sectors such as bodaboda riders, farmers, fishermen, and small holder miners to either form or join cooperatives so as to be empowered to be self-reliant and economically self sufficient.
On his part, Mr. John Ziro, Kilifi County Cooperative Development Committee chairperson, said improving financial wellness was about practicing better money habits, setting goals and taking steps to achieve them all with the aim of improving ones’ overall quality of life.
To ensure saccos’ success, the Chairperson advised sacco leaders to always create yearly budgets and see that they are passed by members at least three months before the beginning of a new financial year, mobilize savings, invest prudently, timely mitigate risks and take care of debts.
Ziro added that, “Sacco societies are instruments which if used wisely, can turn individual risks into a collective risk, offering a soft and friendly environment where hurdles can be easily overcome.”
He was pleased by more Kilifi residents increasingly preferring the sacco model as their mode of doing business, adding that cooperative model of like-minded individuals, forming socioeconomic groups to improve livelihoods, was one of the best recipes of economic development.
Mr. George Mwangiri, Kilifi County Chief Officer, reiterated that the county was passionate about saccos and the cooperative movement and was on a mission to see every one including county’s staff be part of saccos.
“It is our responsibility as sacco leaders and members to bring on board community members who are not yet part and parcel of the movement, in our effort to eliminate poverty in the county,” emphasized Mwangiri.
Mwangiri announced that the county was crowned second in a recently held event in Nairobi for being among the top counties to come up with a cooperative bill that addresses matters saccos in the county and thanked the county executive for constantly supporting the movement and ensuring its continuous growth.
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