By David kipkorir
The highest proportion of loans advanced by Saccos in 2021 went toward the land and housing sectors of the economy, which accounted for 26.98 per cent of the total credit facilities advanced, a Supervision Annual Report 2021 by Savings and Credit Co-operative Societies (Saccos) shows.
The report also depicts the education sector as the second highest focus of investment for borrowers at 20.83 per cent of all the credit advanced in 2021, while the agricultural sector comes third with a proportion of credit advanced in the same period accounting for 17.47 per cent.
As the majority of Sacco members borrow principally to buy or purchase land or housing, fund educational needs, and agricultural purposes, trade and manufacturing divisions also get some fair share.
The amounts of credit advanced towards the trade, and manufacturing and service sectors accounted for 12.16 per cent and 7.88 per cent respectively, thereby showing low activity of members of Saccos in these sectors.
The report noted that some Sacco members took credit for purposes of repaying other credit facilities in the commercial or microfinance or mortgage finance institutions, or to pay for insurance premiums and make financial investments.
The amount of credit advanced by the Saccos for the period ended December 2021 for consumption and social services accounted for 8.36 per cent of the total credit and loan facilities advanced in the year.
During the period under review, the total assets of the Sacco sub-sector in 2021 rose to Ksh807.11 billion compared to Ksh734.22 billion in 2020.
The analysis shows that the Deposit-Taking (DT) Saccos controlled the highest proportion of the total assets amounting to Ksh691.09 billion, while the Non-Withdrawable Deposit-Taking (NWDT) Saccos controlled Ksh116.02 billion.
The 2021 report indicated that the largest proportion of the assets portfolio consisted of net loans and advances, which amounted to Ksh572.68 billion of the total assets portfolio in 2021, a marked increase of a sum of Ksh530.00 billion recorded in 2020.
The cash and cash equivalent constituted the second highest proportion of total assets with a cumulative sum of Ksh92.36 billion, which is an increase from a cash and cash equivalent cumulative sum of Ksh61.25 billion reported in 2020.
The financial investments registered a drop from Ksh66.99 billion recorded in 2020 to Ksh50.29 billion recorded in 2021.
The NWDT Saccos total deposit portfolio amounted to Ksh116.02 billion for the period ended December 2021 compared to Ksh106.54 billion for the period ended December 2020.
The supervision report says, just like the DT Sacco segment, the largest proportion of the assets of NWDT Saccos is composed of the net loans and advances amounting to Ksh84.48 billion representing 72.82 per cent of the segments’ assets.
