By Staff Reporter
The Sacco Societies Regulatory Authority (SASRA) withdrew the licenses of four deposit-taking Saccos by close of December 2021.
Effectively, the four are barred from conducting deposit-taking business in 2022.
Affected Saccos are Nyamira Tea Sacco Society Ltd, Uchongaji Sacco Society Ltd, Nanyuki Equator Sacco Society Ltd and Comoco Sacco Society Ltd.
SASRA has a legal mandate of licensing Saccos to undertake deposit-taking business.
“However, four DT Saccos had their licenses withdrawn or failed to have the operating licenses renewed for the ensuing year 2022,” SASRA said in its Sacco Supervision Annual Report, 2021.
The four will not operate under the supervisory oversight of the regulator or authorization in case of failure to maintain the stipulated minimum prudential standards.
On the other hand, the regulator licensed five other Saccos to undertake deposit-taking business, bringing the total number of DT-Saccos to 176.
The Saccos have been conducting the deposit-taking business since the beginning of 2022.
The five are Kabiyet Sacco Society Ltd, Home Business Sacco Society Ltd, Defence Sacco Society Ltd, Strategic Deposit-Taking Sacco and Chuka University Sacco Society Ltd.
“The 176 DT-Saccos had their licences successfully renewed for continued operation in Kenya for the period commencing January 2022 to December 2022,” SASRA said.
With the operationalization of the Regulations 2020, there are now 361 Saccos under its regulatory and policy framework.
The new regulations govern the authorization, supervision and regulations of Saccos undertaking specified non-deposit taking business.
“At the close of the year 2021, the Authority had received a total of 199 applications from Saccos seeking to undertake the specified non-deposit taking business, out of which 185 applications were successful,” it said in its annual report.
Consequently, the Authority authorized a total of 185 non-withdrawable deposit-taking (NWDT) Saccos to operate in the country during the course of the year 2021, and these NWDT-Saccos had their authorization successfully renewed to continue operating in Kenya for the period commencing January 2022 to December 2022.
