Vihiga County is planning to allocate Ksh525 million towards Co-operative Development Services to strengthen management of co-operatives in the county.
According to its 2023-2027 County Integrated Development Plan (CIDP), Ksh 80 million will be set aside to fund the initiative.
The county is targeting to use this sum to register 285 active co-operatives in the next five years – from 2023 to 2027 – whereby this year they are targeting to register 40 co-operatives at a cost of Ksh5 million.
It will register 50 co-operatives at a cost of Ksh 10 million in 2024, 60 co-operatives at Ksh15 million in 2025, 65 co-operatives at Ksh20 million in 2026 and 70 co-operatives in 2027 at a cost of Ksh30 million.
With the allocation, the county is projecting membership in cooperatives to increase this year to 29,300 members; in 2024 to 30,500 members, 31,000 members in 2025; 32,000 members in 2026 and a total of 32,500 members in the final year.
According to the CIDP the county is projecting an increased capital base for the five year period with shared capital increasing by Ksh55 million in 2023, Ksh57 million in 2024, Ksh59 million in 2025, Ksh60 million in 2026 and Ksh62 million in 2027.
However, the total budget allocation which is being planned to be used by the county to implement Cooperative Enterprise Development fund is Ksh 200 million which will be spread across the five years as follows: Ksh20 million in 2023, Ksh30 million in 2024, Ksh40 million in 2025, Ksh50 million in 2026 and Ksh 60 million in 2027.
Further, the county is also planning to set aside Ksh245 million to be used to increase cooperative bulking, value addition and marketing.
This will entail a budget of Ksh25 million to establish 15 bulking/aggregation facilities whereby in each year it targets to establish 3 facilities at Ksh5 million each year.
Another Ksh 170 million will be used to set up 8 Milk and Banana processing units with two units being established each year for the next four years at the cost of Ksh30 million in 2023 and Ksh50 million each from 2024 to 2026.
In addition, Ksh50 million will be used to establish two tannery (hides and skins) processing industry with Ksh25 million being allocated for each in 2024 and 2025.
Value addition, standardization, product diversification and enhanced productivity are the major sector priorities the county wants to use by using strategies like strengthening cooperative governance, implementation of cooperative enterprise fund, increase cooperative capital base through Cooperative Enterprise Fund and promote cooperative bulking, value addition and market access.
By Roy Hezron
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