By Cally Imbai
Busia County marked the centenary international day of the cooperative movement with calls for the movement to embrace technology to be able to secure its member’s cash assets.
The event that was attended by hundreds of cooperators from across the county was held at the Township Vocational Training Centre grounds on July 3, 2022 and was graced by the county government’s Chief Officer for Cooperatives Mr. Patrice Lumumba and the County Director for Cooperatives and Cooperative Enterprise Development Fund, Oscar Odaba.
Mr. Odaba said the County Government of Busia was seeking to convert most of the table banker groups into Saccos to empower members economically, urging Saccos to encourage voluntary registration of members.
He added that despite the event failing to take place in 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, strides had been made in revamping the sector, calling on Saccos to focus on service delivery, especially human-centered business models.
“Saccos are nonprofit organizations. I urge Saccos to embrace the traditional cooperative model by charging 5 per cent per annum interest instead of leveling the same charge as commercial banks at 13 per cent,” Mr Odaba said.
Mr. Lumumba revealed that they had instituted stringent measures aimed at safeguarding the savings of members.
He said the county government will not relent in its pursuit to ensure members got the value for their investments.
“We are not doing very well; of the more than 300 Saccos, only about 140 are active, yet limping. We need to streamline the operations of these nonprofit organizations to save millions of members’ investments from sinking,” Mr. Lumumba said.
The Chief Officer added that some Saccos were running illegally without offices or annual general meetings and audited reports, saying that he had engaged external auditors to streamline the books of Saccos and thereby restore members’ confidence.
Lumumba urged members who borrow from their respective Saccos to ensure prompt repayment to sustain their Saccos in the long term.
Co-operative Bank of Kenya Ltd Busia Branch Manager John Onsongo, who was the guest honour, urged Saccos to grow their membership with the Co-op Society which opened doors through Sessional Paper no 10 of 1965 that gave birth to Co-operative Bank of Kenya.
He urged Saccos to embrace digitization, which he said was key to the growth of cooperatives in the modern World.
“Out of Ksh15 billion that the bank earns in annual profits, 70 per cent comes from the cooperatives, thus the need by Saccos to invest their money with the bank,” he said.
Ushirika Day is marked by cooperatives worldwide since 1923 and officially declared by the United Nations General Assembly on the centenary of the ICA in 1995. It is celebrated annually on the first Saturday of July.
The aim of Cooperatives’ Day is to increase awareness of cooperatives and promote the movement’s ideas of international solidarity, economic efficiency, equality, and world peace.
This year’s Coops Day theme was ‘Cooperatives Build a Better World’.
During the occasion, Faridi Sacco, a teacher-based Sacco in Busia County which has now opened the Common Bond, was awarded for being the top performer regionally.
