Patrick Kilemi, Principal Secretary State Department of Cooperatives has said the government has put up strategies aimed at supporting innovations and industrialization for startups in the sector.
Speaking during the National CEOs workshop which brought together cooperative leaders from the 47 counties to discuss investment and financing opportunities for SMEs, government innovation and industrialization support for startups and financing movable assets and retail business and positioning staff to support MSMEs, Kilemi noted that the workshop was essential for the leaders to interact with other leaders in the cooperative sector and develop synergies.
The workshop’s theme, ‘Growing Co-operatives through business sector and industrialization’, he said resonated well with the government’s Bottom-up economic model which focuses on bringing down the cost of living, eradicating hunger, expanding tax base and creating jobs.
“Towards the realization of this transformative agenda, the government has come up with various strategies aimed at supporting innovations and industrialization amongst them is the promotion of social economic inclusion agenda driven by the financial inclusion fund popularly known as the Hustler fund. The ministry is in the process of launching the second phase of hustler funds in partnership with saccos to ensure lending to startups,” stated Kilemi.
Additionally, he revealed that the Kenya Kwanza Administration has identified six core pillars for cooperatives to venture in for business opportunities. This includes; Agriculture, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Digital Superhighways, Environmental and climate change and Housing. In the Agricultural pillar, the ministry has planned a series of interventions aimed at revitalization of key chains
such as dairy, tea, coffee amongst others in support of industrialization.
The cooperatives were also encouraged to explore and support emerging opportunities in digital superhighways and other creative economy that has the potential of spurring innovation and industrialization. They were asked to partner with the Kenya Mortgage Refinance Company (KMRC) in the provision of affordable housing and to access long term financing.
The ministry has further developed a sessional paper No. 4 of 2020 on National Cooperative Policy whose theme is promoting Cooperatives for socio-economic Transformation. The policy provides for interventions for a conducive business environment including emerging trends in the cooperative sector.
To operationalize the policy, the ministry has drafted a Cooperative bill 2022 that will provide a legal framework that promotes a sustainable and competitive cooperative sector.
The Sacco Societies Act has also been amended to create a basis for strengthening the supervisory and regulatory frameworks for deposit taking and non-deposit taking saccos to provide for shared services and central liquidity facility and to facilitate the operationalization of Deposit Guarantee funds for saccos in Kenya.
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