In the intricate landscape of Kenya’s financial ecosystem, the Sacco Societies Regulatory Authority (SASRA) Supervision Report 2024 emerges as a pivotal barometer of the cooperative banking sector’s vitality.
Released on September 25, 2025, by Cabinet Secretary for Cooperatives and MSMEs Wycliffe Oparanya, this annual statutory document—mandated under Section 22 of the Sacco Societies Act—chronicles the performance of 357 regulated Saccos for the year ended December 31, 2024.
Comprising 177 deposit-taking Saccos (DT-Saccos) and 178 non-withdrawable deposit-taking Saccos (NWDT-Saccos), the sector commands a formidable combined asset to the tune of Sh1.08 trillion in assets, underscoring its role as a linchpin in financial inclusion and grassroots economic mobilization.
Yet, beneath the veneer of growth lies a narrative of triumphs tempered by vulnerabilities, where robust asset expansion collides with liquidity strains and eroding member returns.
This analysis dissects the report’s core metrics, spotlighting hits that fortify the sector’s foundations and misses that signal imperative reforms.
The report’s standout hit is the sector’s unyielding trajectory of expansion, a testament to Saccos’ entrenched position in Kenya’s Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda.
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Total assets surged 10.1 percent to Sh1.08 trillion by December 2024—up from Sh971.96 billion in 2023.
Membership swelled 6.57 percent to 6.84 million, capturing 30 percent of Kenya’s adult working population and edging closer to World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) benchmarks of 40 percent penetration in peer economies.
SASRA attributes this to heightened public awareness campaigns and the onboarding of additional Saccos under prudential oversight, fostering a more inclusive financial fabric.
Lending portfolios mirrored this momentum, growing 10 percent to Sh380 billion, with micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) absorbing 45 percent of disbursements—a critical conduit for Vision 2030’s industrialization imperatives.
Equally commendable is SASRA’s proactive regulatory scaffolding, which has burnished the sector’s stability quotient. Core capital adequacy ratios held steady at 12.5 percent, exceeding the 10 percent statutory threshold and buffering against macroeconomic tremors like 7.2 percent inflation and post-flood recovery exigencies.
The authority’s digital interventions—encompassing automated compliance dashboards and AI-driven risk analytics—facilitated a 25 percent reduction in supervisory infractions, from 450 in 2023 to 338 in 2024.
Moreover, the report lauds the overhaul of complaints resolution mechanisms, slashing average grievance timelines from 90 to 45 days and adjudicating 12,000 disputes with a 92 percent satisfaction rate—a 35 percent volume increase year-over-year.
This member-centric pivot, leveraging blockchain for transparent arbitration, has recalibrated trust dynamics, with Net Promoter Scores climbing to 68 from 55, as Oparanya noted during the launch.
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“These reforms are not mere procedural tweaks; they are the sinews binding member loyalty to institutional resilience.
Yet, for all its lustre, the report unflinchingly exposes misses that cast shadows over this progress, chief among them a pernicious liquidity crunch from stalled remittances. A glaring Sh3.49 billion in unpaid salary deductions—owed by public universities, county governments, and parastatals to 85 Saccos—affected 55,000 workers, marking a 20 percent escalation from Sh2.91 billion in 2023.
This arrears pile, symptomatic of public sector fiscal inertia, has throttled liquidity ratios to 18 percent (down from 22 percent), compelling Saccos to curtail loan approvals by 15 percent and inflating funding costs by 2 percentage points.
The ripple effects are profound: farmers deferred seasonal inputs, MSMEs faced cash-flow asphyxiation, and household credit lines contracted, exacerbating exclusion in rural corridors where Saccos dominate 70percent of financing.
Compounding this is the sector’s first dividend retrenchment in three years, a stark miss in the returns paradigm.
Average payouts on share capital dipped to 10.46 percent from 10.92 percent in 2023, with DT-Saccos at 10.54 percent (versus 10.79 percent) and NWDT-Saccos at 10.37 percent (versus 11.06 percent).
While SASRA frames this as prudent capital conservation amid rising interest expenses—now at 9.8 percent on borrowings—the erosion gnaws at member incentives.
High-performers like Ollin and Stima Saccos bucked the trend with 12-13 percent yields, but the aggregate decline risks disintermediation, as savers pivot to commercial banks offering 11-12 percent fixed deposits.
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Non-performing loans (NPLs) edged up to 8.2 percent from 7.5 percent, fueled by borrower distress in agriculture (35 percent of portfolio) and informal trade, underscoring gaps in credit risk underwriting.
Governance lapses further mar the ledger, with the report flagging 22 Saccos for insider lending breaches exceeding 20 percent of core capital, siphoning resources from rank-and-file members.
Rural-urban disparities persist: while urban Saccos posted 15 percent asset growth, rural counterparts languished at 8 percent, hampered by digital divides and 40 percent lower tech adoption.
Penetration remains anemic at 30 percent, trailing global cooperatives and even Kenya’s 2024 FinAccess Survey’s 11.7 percent SACCO usage rate (up from 9.6 percent in 2021 but still modest).
Critics, decry these as “systemic fissures,” arguing that SASRA’s enforcement—via blacklisting and EACC partnerships—lacks teeth, with only 15 percent of flagged cases yielding penalties.
Strategically, the report pivots toward remittance integration as a prospective hit, aligning with a parallel FSD Kenya-IFAD study on Saccos’ untapped role in channeling $4 billion in annual diaspora inflows.
By harnessing community trust networks, Saccos could capture 10-15 percent market share from incumbents, injecting liquidity and curbing forex leakages.
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SASRA’s FY 2024/25 performance contracts, signed under Oparanya’s aegis, embed this via interoperability mandates with mobile money platforms, potentially unlocking Sh50 billion in new deposits.
In summation, the SASRA 2024 Report delineates a sector at an inflection point: hits in asset accretion, regulatory fortification, and inclusion metrics affirm Saccos’ stature as Vision 2030 accelerators.
Misses in remittances, dividends, and NPLs, however, imperil this arc, demanding fiscal rectitude from errant employers and nimbler risk frameworks.
Absent concerted remediation—perhaps through automated deduction enforcements and diversified funding—the specter of stagnation looms.
For investors and policymakers, the imperative is clear: nurture these cooperatives not as relics, but as dynamic engines of Kenya’s financial sovereignty. As the report concludes, stability begets prosperity; complacency invites contraction.
By David Kipkorir
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