By Boniface Mulu
The management of the Kitui based Savings and Credit Cooperative Society Limited has paid a total of 1,480,508 shillings dividends to approximately 500 members online.
Normally, the society pays dividends to the members during their annual general meeting (AGM) that is usually held in April yearly but the Sacco could not hold this year’s annual general meeting as one way of avoiding crowding as directed by the Ministry of Health.
“We paid the dividends through the Cooperative Bank of Kenya’s Internet Banking on June 10th, 2020 because we could not pay them through the annual general meeting due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Mr. Michael Mutua, Sacco’s CEO while speaking to the journalists on Friday, July 17th, 2020.
He described the bank’s online banking as the most efficient and safest. “The system is good for Saccos that do not have Front Office Service Activities (FOSAs),” said Mutua.
We saw that it is a very good system and we as a Sacco can use the platform because we have no FOSA at our Sacco,” Mutua added.
He said that they transferred the dividends to the members to their various bank accounts in adherence to the government’s Covid-19 pandemic rules.
Mr. Mutua added that they are paying the dividends in batches due to the present economic impotence that was triggered by Covd-19 pandemic.
“We are set to pay the second batch of around 500 members as soon as they surrender their respective bank accounts,” said Mutua.
He disclosed that Sacco currently has a total of 4,300 members specifically from Kitui County.
“We have not stopped lending to the members even during the trying and tiring times of Covid-19 pandemic considering the fact that most of our members invest mostly on businesses,” Mutua added.
While speaking to Sacco Review, Mutua said that they have intensified loan monitoring which is done by the Covid-19 loan monitoring committee on a daily basis.
Bestrock Sacco was started in 1999 and it has its headquarters is in Kitui Town.
