• Daniel Marube the chief executive officer Cooperatives Alliance of Kenya (CAK) says small Saccos will buy shares of between Sh350,000- Sh500,000.
• Big saccos will pay shares of up to Sh10 million as a one off payment.
Image: HANDOUT
Saccos will start enjoying a shared platform for banking services to curb cybercrime incidences in their operations.
The new facility –Cooptech is expected to increase accessibility to various services which for a long have been a big challenge to the majority of Sacoos due to lack of financial muscles and other endowments.
Cooperatives cabinet secretary Simon Chelugui said the platform will be accessible to all cooperatives and this is aimed at enhancing competition in the Sacco movement and ensuring the safety of depositors' funds.
“Technology cannot work alone, behind every transformational technology there must be a transformational leader. However, as we invest in technology it would also be prudent to invest in cyber security due to the rapid increase in cybercrime which has emerged as an issue of great concern across the divide,'' he said.
The CS said technology has become a driving force behind change in almost every industry and it plays an integral role in sustaining co-operatives by offering the ability to manage resources.
Daniel Marube the chief executive officer of Cooperatives Alliance of Kenya (CAK) noted that investing in cyber security is expensive.
“But when cooperative societies come together, we will be able to employ the most expensive technology and experienced people to protect our members,” he said.
He explained that Cooperatives will need to buy shares at Sh5,000 per share to join the platform.
Marube said small Saccos will pay between Sh350,000- Sh500,000 while the big ones will pay shares of up to Sh10 million as a one off payment.
“Every year, the societies remit a lot of money in terms of licenses. But with this system, they will be paying a one off amount in terms of shares. They stand to save billions of shillings because every cooperative pays an annual price of about SH1.5 million on licenses only besides other costs,” he said.
Marube said the platform will also make technology affordable to those members because currently, a simple system could cost one society over Sh100 million.
“So instead of each cooperative buying its own system, we are saying let’s come together, spend maybe SH10 million so that the rest SH90 million can be available to the members as loans,” he said.
“We also want to enable cooperatives to improve their image. The image of cooperatives has been bad for a long time. For instance, being behind technology, not being attractive to the youth, constant delays in processing loans, loss of documents and old machinery and equipment,” the CEO said.
He however added that the platform will help uplift all the cooperatives participating in the platform into a completely new world of technology. Technology will enable cooperatives to attract the youth because they are technology enabled.
“At the end of the day, we want to have one cooperative movement with one till number and we will be respected as cooperatives," Marube said.
"We will be able to borrow money amongst ourselves, we will be sending remittances and receiving money from all over the world. We can also be able to negotiate with the Government once we have enough funds together to invest in different bounds. This is the beginning of building a strong financial institution,” he added.