Union opposes devolution of Saccos

Kenya Union of Savings and Credit Co-operatives Managing Director George Ototo at a past event. FILE PHOTO | DIANA NGILA |  NATION MEDIA GROUP

In Summary

• Mr Otondo made the remarks during a media breakfast meeting at Crowne Plaza Hotel where he announced plans for the national Sacco leaders Convention to be held on March 30 to 31 had been finalised where the theme, capitalising on devolution for Sacco Growth’ will be discussed.
• He said that the youth and women agenda would also be discussed for meaningful and practical ways be sought to ensure their inclusion in Sacco operations. 

By JAMES KARIUKI
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The savings and credit co-operatives union has opposed the introduction of taxes and regulation of Saccos by county governments saying it will stifle access to cheap loans.

Kenya Union of Savings and Credit Co-operatives Limited(KUSCCO) said that attempts by some county governments to introduce laws governing operations of Saccos within their jurisdiction would adversely affect growth of Saccos. 

“We are unhappy about taxation laws that seeks to impose a 10 per cent penalty fee for every Front Office Savings Activity (FOSA) and we shall also oppose any attempt to locally register saccos with a national presence,” said KUSCCO’s Managing Director Mr George Ototo.

The union said that plans were underway to help small saccos launch online based services via a KUSCCO backed cloud processing platform that has successfully been piloted on nine Saccos among them two Saccos with FOSA activities and a total membership of 50,000 members. 

Mr Ototo said that the Application Service Provider (ASP) was mooted to help smaller Saccos seeking to leverage on information, communication and technology services to introduce the service on a Pay-As-You-Go model. However, big Saccos with their own ASPs will be at liberty to continue using the IT platforms.

Mr Otondo made the remarks during a media breakfast meeting at Crowne Plaza Hotel where he announced plans for the national Sacco leaders Convention to be held on March 30 to 31 had been finalised where the theme, capitalising on devolution for Sacco Growth’ will be discussed. 

RETAINED

He said the convention will also be used as a platform to engage the national assembly and the senate on facilitating laws that will ensure the co-operative movement regulation is retained as a national government function and should not be devolved as per the constitution.

Mr Ototo added that recent survey that Saccos were losing ground to banks was farfetched since the Sacco business model had lured common interest groups among them, hairstylists, cabdrivers and market women to form Saccos that could enable them access cheap loans for self-development. 

“We must tell our people the truth that Saccos have engineered financial inclusion at the grassroot levels across the entire country and this has seen Kenyans enjoy banking services at lower costs,” he said. 

KUSCCO’s membership now stands at 2,800 Saccos with more members being vetted for compliance before formal registration to ensure they adhere to the savings and credit culture.