Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) Nakuru Branch Manager Ms Christine Keter says that the bank has come up with the KCB Chama App that seeks to help cooperatives, and Chamas (Groups) on managing finances, taking loans or saving towards an objective.
The officer noted that most cooperatives face challenging issues such as managing finances and unavailability of credit that cause stagnation of development within the cooperatives.
She was speaking in Nakuru where she led a team from the bank in a meeting with the County Chief Officer for Cooperatives Kurgat Kibet to explore possible areas of collaboration between the department and the bank.
Ms, Keter further disclosed that the bank will work in partnership with the county to train Small Scale Enterprises (SMEs) and provide mentorship to the cooperatives which has been identified by the government as one of the important pillars in improving the economy and in the achievement of vision 2030.
However, the chairman of small-scale farmers in the county, Bernard Mwenje, present, said, a number of banks have not appreciated the struggle of farmers since they don’t factor in the numerous natural calamities such as the recent floods, droughts and unanticipated diseases like the vicious armyworms.
He maintained that farming be it of crops, poultry and animal husbandry are totally different from other businesses, which are likely to make profits on a daily basis as farmers have to wait for crops to mature, get harvested, sell and repay the loans.
He claimed that more often than not banks expect farmers to start servicing the loan in 30 to 60 days, which in most cases the poor farmers haven’t even harvested, or started selling the eggs, meat or milk.
Mwenje said cooperative societies who take loans on behalf of the farmers are more likely to default because of unanticipated eventualities, such as a sick cow or after a cow has been injected against East-Coast Fever (ECF) which forces the farmer to milk, and discard the milk for seven days, hence affecting the projected out-put of the cooperative society.
He urged the county governments to come up with a revolving Sacco that charges a minimum fee, and doesn’t penalize or increase interests for delayed payments caused by natural disasters.
By Veronica Bosibori
