The Cooperatives Alliance of Kenya Chief Executive Officer Daniel Marube has called for a national policy on cooperatives development to spur growth in the sector.
Speaking in Mombasa on Saturday during the Bandari Sacco 45th annual general meeting at the Bandari Maritime College, Marube said such a cooperatives policy will spur economic growth across the counties.
Marube said cooperatives are a devolved function under county governments hence underscored the need for a common policy to guide the sector across the devolved units.
He said the cooperative movement is facing many challenges due to lack of a common national policy to drive the cooperative movement in the devolved units.
“The cooperative movement is a critical player in social economic development of the country and should not be allowed to suffer due to lack of proper policy,” he said.
Marube said the savings and credit cooperatives operating in the counties were not working in harmony due to lack of a unifying policy to guide their activities and operations.
He said the lack of a working cooperative policy was hampering the growth and management of the sector in the country.
Bandari Sacco Ltd Chief Executive Officer Joseph Otieno said the sacco has more than 15,000 members and seeks to have an investment capital base of Sh9.4 billion by 2022.
Otieno said they have recorded steady growth in 2019 despite the poor state of the economy due to discipline in financial practices.
Bandari Sacco chairman Ken Sungu on his part said this year the largest sacco in the coast region plans to embark on developing its land properties across the region.
He said the sacco plans to put up shopping malls, houses to let, social amenities and other facilities on its real estate properties and increase its asset base.
By Hussein Abdullahi
