With a dedicated ministry that is managing the cooperatives and the cooperative movement, Mr. Simon Mwangi, head of Government and Institutional banking at Sidian Bank, said there had lately been demand for industry players to pull together.
Speaking with Sacco World during the 8th Annual Kenya Union of Savings and Credit Cooperatives (KUSCCO) summit in Mombasa that brought together over 1200 delegates, Mr. Mwangi said the movement in the country was on the right trajectory considering it being in position one in Africa and seven in the world.
Sidian Bank has been a key infrastructure creator for saccos and sponsors of the KUSCCO summits for the last five years, with this year being the Prime Sponsors.
“Saccos are our partners and not competitors. We work to strengthen our relationships to help them grow as their customers grow too and endeavor to equip them with capacities, infrastructure and the technology to make them deliver more and efficiently.” He stated.
Among the products that Sidian Bank offer to saccos include Trade Finance that saccos can leverage on and grow their non funded income, free scanners and money transfer services that allow saccos to perform effectively and efficiently.
“We have over 100 deposit taking (DT) saccos that are banking with us and the number is still growing.We welcome saccos to come and partner with us because as a bank, we have gone through a lot of transformation to develop our cooperative arm to proficiently serve them.” He added.
The strong partnership with saccos over the past years Mr. Mwangi said had witnessed massive impact on both sides, and the bank’s objective remained to see saccos flourish in all fronts.
“We are going to have new relationships after the KUSCCO summit and we will continue listening and being innovative in our service delivery, finding out what gaps exist in the market and working to fill them.” He said.
He appreciated saccos’ many years efforts to lift Kenyans from the lower economic ladder by equipping and assisting them move up the economic chain even before it became an economic model in the country.
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