The Kenya Kwanza government has been asked to channel funds it promised to boost Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) through well-structured Saccos.
Amica Sacco Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mr. James Mbui on Thursday observed that Saccos were mostly composed of members of low income earnings and especially from grassroots and thus were well suited to ensure the funds are easily accessed by the ordinary mwananchi.
He added that some of the Saccos were made up of farmers and traders who could get subsidies through the societies without much challenges.
Mbui spoke during his Sacco’s special annual meeting which was held in a Murang’a hotel where the delegates also approved next year’s budget.
“The new government had promised to give hustler funds and as Saccos, we pray that our societies are given priority when it comes to the process of channeling the money since we work with membership drawn from grassroots,” he added.
He further lauded the new regime for bringing back the Ministry of Cooperative which was combined with SMEs saying the hustler fund is most likely to come through cooperatives.
“Cooperatives are the best financial systems that should get money down to the ordinary person on the ground who actually needs it,” Mbui further said.
The CEO further said they were in talks with various county governments to assist farmers get subsidies on farm input through cooperatives.
“In my Sacco, our big membership is drawn from coffee, tea and dairy farmers and if we partner with devolved units, we will ensure farmers get subsidies to increase their production,” Mbui noted.
Meanwhile, Mbui projected that 2023 would be a better year observing that since last year, cooperative societies have been financially affected by hard economic times.
Drought, high fuel prices, the CEO cited as some of the challenges which contributed to bad debts thus affecting income growth of Saccos.
“The loan default in our society was about 10 percent and this can be attributed to difficult economic conditions our members have been going through since last year,” he noted.
“This year, many parts of the country are experiencing drought thus affecting crop production and the dairy sector. We hope by next year the situation will be better as we have also restructured loan repayment periods to some of our members who have requested assistance,” he added.
