By Tsozungu Kombe
Imariki Sacco, formerly Kilifi Teachers Sacco, continues to improve the livelihoods of its members through the variety of savings and loan products it offers. The Kilifi based Sacco has grown to be one of the best saccos in Kenya.
Zafarani Mkawasi Chisenga, a member of Imarika Sacco, and a former chairperson of the Sacco, could not hide her joy when she testified about the Sacco during an interview with Sacco Review.
Her journey with the Sacco has transformed her life since she joined in 1975. After saving for some time, she has taken an accumulated amount of Sh7 million in loans from the Sacco, which she used to buy a six acre land at Mkangagani village, in Kilifi North Sub County in Kilifi County.
The impression you get when you talk with Chisenga is that her life was changed due to loans the Sacco has been giving her.
“At Out of loans from Imarika Sacco, I bought six acres of land” she recounts.
The former Imarika Sacco chairperson also used the money to educate her three children up to university level.
Mrs. Chisenga also used her loan to construct a residential house in Malindi.
The former chairperson also built a living house at her homestead at Mkangagani village in Kilifi North Sub County.
She also has two dairy cows which produce milk for her children and for sale, all proceeds from the loans from Imarika Sacco.
She also has a poultry project at her homestead at Mkangagani village. The former chairperson also has a posho mill, thanks to the Sacco.
Imarika Sacco trains members on better usage of loans and make them confident in starting businesses.
She urged Coast region residents to join Imarika Sacco in large numbers and invest heavily so that they could get bigger loans at the end of transaction period to accomplish their personal development projects.
She however notes that many people in the country have equally managed to implement their development through taking loans from their respective Saccos.
“Joining Saccos is therefore the right direction for both prosperity and stability respectively”.
This, she discloses would enable them to boost their economic wellbeing.
Chisenga is a retired teacher who was born in 1954 at Kariakor village in Voi Sub County in Taita Taveta County.
Speaking to Sacco Review at her homestead at Mkangagani village in Kilifi North Sub County in Kilifi County recently, Mrs. Chisenga says that she joined standard one at Voi primary school in 1961 up to 1967 when she sat for her Certificate of Primary Education (CPE).
In 1972, she joined Machakos Teachers Training College where she trained as a P1 teacher and achieved a Certificate.
After graduating as a P1 teacher she was posted to Kijiwetanga Primary school in Malindi Sub County as an ordinary teacher in 1974.
She taught in several schools in Coast region before she opted for early retirement in 2012 after serving for 37 years.
And after some years she was elected as Imarika Sacco Board Member.
In 2006, Mrs. Chisenga says she was elected as a first woman to be elected as Imarika Sacco, Chairperson a position which she held up to 2011 when she opted to go for early retirement.
She was also elected KUSCCO Director representing Coast and North Eastern regions from 2006 up to 2011.
Following her good leadership in Imarika Sacco, she was awarded HSC by late President Mwai Kibaki as an appreciation of the good work and progress at Imarika Sacco.
She is blessed with three children, one girl and two boys.
