The Saccos Societies Regulatory Authority (SASRA) has published a full list of all the licensed SACCOs in Kenya.
The list includes:
- 176 licensed deposit-taking SACCOs
- 183 authorized non-withdrawals deposit SACCOs
The SACCO Societies Regulatory Authority (SASRA) is the government’s principal agency responsible for the supervision and regulation of SACCO Societies in Kenya. It is established pursuant to the provisions the Sacco Societies Act, No.14 of 2008. The Authority’s principal responsibility is to license SACCO Societies to undertake Deposit Taking Business in Kenya (FOSA) and to Supervise and regulate both Deposit Taking and Specified Non -Deposit Taking SACCO Societies.
The Authority falls within the State Department of Cooperatives under the Ministry of Cooperatives and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise(MSME) Development.
The list of licensed SACCOs comes following the announcement that SACCOs are set to join the National Payment System (NPS) of Kenya allowing them to clear cheques and begin lending to one another in a bid to lower the cost of credit.
The move, spearheaded by Kenyan President, William Ruto, seeks to expand financial inclusion by reducing SACCOs over-reliance on banks for funding and other commercial services such as cheque issuance and processing.
Currently, SACCOs in Kenya rely on banks for the following:
- Issuing of cheque books
- Processing of personal cheques
- Trade finance services
- Treasury management
- Electronic funds transfer (EFTs)
- Real-time gross settlements (RTGS)
Banks are expected to take a hit on their loan books as SACCOs begin lending to each other through the Central Liqudity Facility (CLF), which is an equivalent of the inter-bank market.
“It is something that the saccos have really pushed and we are hoping the new government can actualise that vision,” said SASRA Chief Executive, Peter Njuguna.
The government is set to establish a KES 1 billion ($8.3 million) Central Liqudity Facility (CLF) for SACCOs in about one year in a bid to ease access to financial services and thus deepen inclusion.
So far, 50 out of the 890 SACCOs have committed to facility establishment with more expected to be admitted.
Recently, Kwara, a Kenyan fintech, announced a partnership with KUSCCO, the national umbrella body representing over 4,000 SACCOs in Kenya to provide software solutions that help digitize a lot of the SACCO activities. The startup secured $3 million following the announcement.
The SACCO sub-sector contributes close to 7% of the Kenyan GDP.
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