Initially established to bring together all Likoni tailors with the sole purpose of mobilizing savings into a pool and offering loans to members at a fair and affordable interest rate to grow their businesses, Likoni Traders Sacco, has over the years made incredible impact on the lives and livelihoods of both tailors and traders alike around Likoni and Mombasa.
Officially started in April 2005, the society has had an interesting journey full of lessons, consistent growth and fair share of challenges. With the core objective of reaching out to tailors in Likoni and forming a sacco, the society was quickly forced to rebrand and change its name from Likoni Tailors Sacco to Likoni Traders Sacco broadening its scope to include more members in both Likoni area and Mombasa as a whole, upon realizing the target group wasn’t joining the society as expected.
Speaking to Sacco World, Mr. Alfred Asher, Hon. Secretary and a founder member of the society said growth was rather small while operating as Likoni Tailors Sacco especially because the number of tailors was small.
After the name change, Likoni Traders Sacco quickly carried out a members’ recruitment drive, bringing in new members from different fields and businesses putting it a step ahead in attaining its vision which is to be the leading cooperative society in Kenya, providing market driven products and services that can be bought and used by all members.
Through its loans such as development loan, school fees loan, instant loan and normal loan, the sacco is everyday immensely impacting the society by providing fair and affordable loans to members that change their lives and those of their families’.
Due to the recently experienced tough economic times, Mr. Asher says members are finding it problematic repaying their loans making loans recovery difficult.
“We have however come up with mechanisms to help members restructure their loans, making the repayment process more flexible by adding them more time.” Stated the Hon. Secretary.
Touching on the recently held International Cooperative Day also known as Ushirika Day, Mr. Asher expressed his excitement on how these years’ celebrations went down adding that it was a perfect platform for societies to come together and learn from each other.
“Other than coming together as industry players, Ushirika Day is also a marketing forum for saccos, showcasing their brands, products and services especially during the procession that usually attracts numerous eyeballs from the public,” he explained.
The society through its leadership, looking at the tremendous benefits found in sacco societies, urges individuals not in saccos to be part and parcel of any society of their choice adding that in saccos, one becomes a member, taking part in decision making of a sacco whereas in other conventional financial institutions one is always regarded as a customer.
“Likoni Traders Sacco is a success story. We have built from scratch and our membership is drawn from the public,” he said, “We have managed to give out millions of shillings to members as loans that have helped them in their ventures; taking children to school, building houses and improving businesses.” He added.
Likoni Traders Sacco has further invested in property, having an undeveloped piece of land and a building that brings in income monthly in form of rent received from tenants occupying the building spaces.
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