By Dan Mweza.
Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies (Saccos) in Mombasa have lauded the County Government for stepping in to control and manage the Saccos which for a long time have been under the National Government.
Speaking during the Mombasa International Sacco Day celebrations at Best Western Hotel, stakeholders brushed off allegations from different quarters that Saccos may die under County governments.
They said that operations and procedures of supervision and audit have been tedious and lengthy under the National Government.
“Registration of new Saccos and financial statements will now be done at the County level,” said Mombasa County Cooperatives Commissioner, Malaki Tenai.
Under the County, the Saccos will stand to benefit from revolving funds and other infrastructural developments.
According to Tenai, Saccos lack operational offices and the county has a deficit of Cooperative officers.
“We have only 11 offices in the whole County serving 250 Saccos,” he said.
Mombasa Cooperatives Development Committee Chairman, Morris Obiero asked the County Government to put in place friendly legislations which encourage thriving of Saccos. The County has formulated the Mombasa County Co-operative Management Bill 2015 to streamline Sacco activities and to create a more conducive environment for them to operate, according to Trade, Energy & Industry Executive, Mohamd Abdi.
Speaking at the event, Abdi said that County will develop frameworks that will encourage savings culture among people and also develop appropriate legislations to protect their savings.
He said that the County has also developed an electronic platform where Sacco members can engage the government using mobile phones.
The communication platform, he said, has a database of all Cooperatives in Mombasa County and members can query authenticity of existence of some groups alleging to be Saccos.
Abdi said the system will be used to do away with quacks in the sector.
He said that the County Government will hold a public forum at Kenya School of Government to discuss the Bill.
