Cooperative societies need to seek joint ventures and strategic alliances to inspire more growth, a national cooperative leadership forum was told.
During a national cooperative leadership forum to discuss leadership, ethics and governance the cooperative leadership heard that the cooperative movement in Kenya has registered impressive growth over the years owing to implementation of an integrated and fast tracking of business opportunities.
Cooperative Insurance Company (CIC) chairman Nelson Kuria argued that leadership in the movement has contributed to the remarkable development of the movement and observance of good governance practices.
“Since the laying of the foundation of the movement in early sixties by our forefathers, the cooperative societies have registered notable development both in terms of deposits, membership and influencing growth in other sectors’ ‘, he said .
He however noted that despite the movement being the key to help unlock the great opportunities that exist within the nation, counties and at individual level, they need to move a notch higher in terms of good leadership and ethics.
“Everything rises and falls on leadership since they are stewards and pioneers who build the co-op movement to become one that is renowned globally at number 7 globally and number 1 in Africa”, he noted .
Kuria continued to say “Cooperatives have demonstrated their capacity to unleash the potential that lies underneath, when people put their act together and work together, they get is better”.
He stated that there are still challenges despite the strides and inspiring growth made saying that it is time to speak the truth, bite the bullet and speak candidly on matters of leadership which has to involve integrity.
The movement, Kuria pointed out, is grappling with numerous challenges and thus frustrating the desire to realize high potential. For example, bad governance coupled with malpractices of members’ resources is still a big challenge to the cooperative movement leadership.
Other challenges include cyber security, low uptake of technology, low participation of youth and women, demographics of membership and debt accumulation. There is high demand for transparency, equity and fairness and regulation, Kuria said .
“Majority of the movement is good but there are a few individuals that we are not calling out even as they continue to make our brand dirty . It is time to call them out”, Kuria said.
The CIC chairman emphasized on the need for leaders to call out others who are not towing to the line saying “ it is not us. It is about the greater majority of the people. And when we do not do it, we fail the greater majority of the people and therefore are equally culpable of the mistakes of those few as long as we don’t speak”.
Daniel Marube, CEO Cooperative Alliance of Kenya (CAK) said they want to put a foundation on future cooperatives saying that although the movement has done well in the past it is not sufficient.
He mentioned that in spite of the rising cost of living in this country, there has been growth in savings, which means that cooperators have continued to sacrifice and deny themselves of some luxuries within their lifestyle to continue maintaining the savings.
Looking forward, he added that considering 65 percent of our cooperative members are maturing and another youth population is below 35 percent , leaders are thinking ahead to be able to bring the youth on board leadership and also to participate in wealth creation within the cooperative business model.
“Leadership has been accused of having old people. we want the young people to come in , and as leaders we want to create and initiate a mentorship programme for every Sacco to within cooperative movement that will bring in new young people to have a continuous flow of leadership not only for today but 50 years to come”, Marube said
David Mategwa , Chairman of Kenya Police Sacco said that tapping the youth to be on board will require Sacco’s to go digital .
“Sacco’s need to digitize their services. We need to make sure that our services and business is driven by technology”, he said, noting that as police Sacco , they continue to invest through providing a budget for technology as it keeps on changing .
Tindi Sitati, representing Worker Cooperative that is mostly of the youth called upon cooperative leaders movement to engage the worker cooperative model, get to learn about it , understand how it does their work and open doors for them as they are sourcing for work in their saccos.
Worker cooperative are businesses that are owned, controlled, managed by the members who are also workers. Most of them are notably in the jua kali sectors namely technicians, messengers, carpenters, electricians, plumbers, painters, steel fixers among others.
“We want to call upon you leaders in the cooperative movement to engage with the worker cooperative model, we are going to be able to provide this work or employment opportunities for these groups of people who are the youth ”, she added
According to the International Labour Organization, the global youth unemployment rate stands at 13 percent, and this is three times the unemployment rate for adults. In Kenya, according to the Federation of Kenya Employers, 67 percent of youth in Kenya are unemployed, and this is 35 percent of the total population that we have in Kenya and these statistics should essentially be very worrying to the cooperatives movement because we would wish to provide a solution to the youth with regards to employment. Sitati said
George Okari from FundiTech a member of the worker cooperative gave an example of about 2.4 million young people in the building and construction space who are looking at how to put a whole team, be able to start from the foundation to the end and make sure they are engaged in the construction industry in a more organized way , be given the jobs and be able to form Saccos
By Wangari Ndirangu
