- The Cooperative movement in Kenya has over 14 million members
- The sector employs 500,000 persons directly while providing self-employment to over 1.5 million people
Image: FILE
Cooperative Societies are playing a key role in the country's economy, accounting for at least 10 per cent of Kenya's Gross Domestic Product or 1.5 trillion.
Speaking yesterday at a stakeholders' meeting ahead of the Ushirika Day to be marked in early July, State Department for Cooperatives Principal Secretary Patrick Kilemi said the movement is part of President William Ruto's platform to economically uplift Kenyans at the bottom of the pyramid.
''The aggregation power of cooperative societies in bringing together farmers and other production sectors of the economy is poised to play a critical role in the government’s agenda to economically uplift Kenyans at the bottom of the pyramid,'' Kilemi said.
According to the PS, the government has nine priority value chains with the cooperatives department having 17 priority value chains and they have noticed that if people were organized and assisted in production via cooperatives, they could produce more and this would address food security in the country.
“As a State Department we are focused on aggregation in sectors such as fishing, mining, and cotton among others,” said the PS.
He challenged Saccos to market the many projects that they have undertaken to transform this country.
Marked since 1923 and officially proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly on the centenary of the ICA in 1995, the day is observed annually on the first Saturday of July.
Cooperative Alliance of Kenya (CAK) chief executive officer Daniel Marube on his part said the sector provides sustainable livelihoods to their members as well as to 32 million people as indirect beneficiaries which translates to 65 per cent of the total population.
According to him, the sector employs 500,000 persons directly while providing self-employment to over 1.5 million people both in rural agriculture and in the formal and informal across all sectors of economic activities.
He hailed Ruto's government for setting up a specific ministry to handle cooperative matters, saying that members feel honoured.
The Cooperative movement in Kenya has continued to grow as most Kenyans prefer to use the model to do business. The numbers of co-operatives are now over 23,000 with over 14 million members, leading the continent.
He also welcomed the move to create a Central liquidity facility to enable Saccos to lend to each other to meet unexpected or unusual short-term cash flow shortfalls.
Once set up, the Central Liquidity and Shared Technology platform will help about 175 deposit-taking Saccos arrest temporal liquidity shocks and imbalances by having societies with excess cash lend to those in need.
Net savings in Saccos rose to Sh22.5 billion in 2022, reversing years of negative cash accumulation in the institutions where most Kenyans park their liquid wealth.
Government data shows Sacco deposits rose to just above Sh600 billion in 2022 from Sh540.5 billion in the previous year, with Sh550 billion issued in loans, leaving members with an aggregate net wealth of Sh50 billion.
CAK chairman Macloud Malonza said that as part of this year’s Ushirika Day celebrations to be led by President William Ruto in Nairobi, they would be having a blood donation drive at the National Archive from June 21 in efforts to help the health sector to get enough blood.