- Sacco membership continues to grow, but a rising share of members are becoming inactive.
- Dormancy rates reveal a widening gap between deposit-taking and non-withdrawable deposit-taking Saccos.
- SASRA is urging Saccos to investigate why members go inactive and develop products to bring them back.
Dormant members now account for 24.14 percent of all members in regulated Saccos, according to the Sacco Societies Regulatory Authority (SASRA). The share has climbed for the third year running, even as total membership reaches a record high.
Overall, the sector added members at a healthy pace. Membership across the 357 regulated Saccos rose 6.60 percent in 2025 to 7.87 million, up from 7.39 million in 2024 and 6.84 million in 2023. SASRA reads the expansion as a sign of growing confidence and trust in the sector.
Yet the headline number hides a quieter problem. Active members did increase in absolute terms, from 5.39 million in 2023 to 5.72 million in 2024 and then to 5.97 million in 2025. However, they are not keeping pace with the wider membership. Their share of the total slipped from 78.85 percent in 2023 to 77.44 percent in 2024, and then to 75.86 percent in 2025. The regulator describes this as a slight decline in the proportion of active members.
Dormancy has moved in the opposite direction, and faster. Inactive members numbered 1.45 million in 2023, rose to 1.67 million in 2024 and reached 1.90 million in 2025. Their share of the base has therefore grown from 21.15 percent to 22.56 percent and now 24.14 percent.
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SASRA calls the proportion high and wants Saccos to work to win these members back, including by designing and launching suitable financial products and services. It also considers it imperative that societies survey their members to establish why so many have gone quiet.
The strain is uneven across the sector. Among deposit taking Saccos (DT-Saccos), membership grew from 6.32 million in 2023 to 7.35 million in 2025. Of those, 5.66 million, or 76.99 percent, were active in 2025, while 1.69 million, or 23.01 percent, were dormant. Dormancy in this segment stood at 20.62 percent in 2023 and 21.26 percent in 2024, so the trend is clearly upward.
The picture is considerably bleaker among non withdrawable deposit taking Saccos (NWDT-Saccos). Dormancy there leapt from 27.68 percent in 2023 to roughly 39.9 percent in both 2024 and 2025. In practical terms, close to two in every five members are inactive. That is more than one and a half times the rate recorded by DT-Saccos.
By Benedict Aoya
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