By Our Reporter
Nairobi County leads the country in the number of highest savers in the cooperative sector, with the highest saver hitting Sh76 million, the county’s Cooperative Commissioner Dolphine Alemi has said.
Speaking during Nyati Sacco Annual General Meeting recently, Alemi said Kenya is one of the leading countries in the world in cooperative movement sector.
She said the sector is growing tremendously making the country to top the chart in Africa and ranking seventh worldwide.
“We lead in Africa and Nairobi leads in Kenya with Sh220 billion in deposits out of Sh600 billion nationally,” she said.
Alemi, who urged the members of the co-operative movement to invest in the sector, praised the city savers saying they have greatly impacted on the county’s economy.
“We have Sh220 billion deposits, thanks to savers. In Westlands alone, we have 162 savers with between Sh10 to Sh19 million and 114 in Starehe area. This reflects why the county is toping in the country. We need to save well for better investments,” she said.
The commissioner praised Saccos like Mwalimu Sacco which has deposits of Sh40 billion, Tower Sacco, Kenya Police Sacco, Stima Sacco among others for being steadfast in growing the sector.
She urged other Saccos to benchmark with them for the benefit of the members.
She called on individual members to improve their savings by giving themselves targets and comparing themselves to high savers to increase their benefits from Saccos.
She urged the board members to carry out member education on saving regularly, borrowing and investing wisely to help improve on Sacco liquidity.
“Make saving a culture when you close your business take something to your savings account. Take a certain per cent to your account,” she said.
Nairobi, with 17 Sub-counties, has 1.6 million co-operators with 40 Deposit Taking Saccos.
