- March 19, 2022
- Posted by: Admin
- Category: Uncategorized
Qwetu members will be smiling all the way to the bank after the Sacco declared dividends of more than Sh12m.
This represents 13 per cent, with the board of directors at the same time proposing an interest of 9.8 per cent on members’ long term deposits equivalent to 105 million.
Addressing delegates during this year’s Annual Delegates Meeting at Vacani hotel in the outskirts of Voi Township, Sacco Chairman Mr. Alfred Mlolwa said the Sacco had presented the 2023 budget estimates at this time of the year unlike in the past when the same was done in October.
“The money saved on this activity will be used to empower delegates and board of directors in marketing the Sacco to its members, said Mlolwa.
The chief guest during the event was Mr. Daniel Marube, the CEO Coop Alliance of Kenya.
The Sacco chairman pointed out that despite the harsh economic conditions occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Sacco had continued to record a steady growth, with membership reaching slightly over 52,000.
He pointed out that the society assets had reached well over 3.2 billion in the FY 2022 and was projected to reach 3.6 billion in the 2023 financial estimates.
The Sacco board was thus proposing a growth of 12.5 per cent, equivalent to Sh403m.
“All the growth areas have shown a favorable and satisfactory trend that if maintained, will lead to great stability in the near future” said Mlolwa, adding that the growth in loan portfolio was commensurate with the growth in members’ deposits.
“This has ensured that the Sacco continued lending without any liquidity challenges. I therefore encourage our members to increase their deposits at all levels” he said.
Mr. Mlolwa at the same time continued to impress upon the members to re-invest part or whole of their interest and dividends as plowback.
He said that due to market dynamics, the board of directors had reduced all the rates and increased the repayment period to enable members qualify for more loans and enjoy lower rates.
Due to the regulations set out by the government to check the spread of the Covid 19, the Sacco had been unable to hold the education to members meetings.
“We hope that for the current year, we shall be able to conduct the exercise, possibly before the general elections” said Mlolwa.
He expressed optimism that the Sacco would occupy their new premises in Voi within the second quarter of this year.
In the supervisory report, chairperson Violet Nyambu pointed out that the Sacco had re-engineered some of its loan products for the benefit of its members.
Among these include Qwetu super loan whose maximum repayment period had been increased to 96 months up from the previous 72 months.
She said that preferential loan term conditions had been reviewed to allow members access the loan at any given time as long as members consent to plowback 50 per cent of interest earned on long term deposits for the entire period of loan repayment.
Repayment period for the same product had been increased to a maximum of 96 months up from 84 months previously.
The benefits for re-engineering the loans include ensuring member retention is achieved by reducing number of loans bought off by banks , improve net salary for members and reducing the number of loan products for ease of marketing.