Kenya’s Savings and Credit Societies, commonly known as SACCOS, are preparing to adapt to COVID-19 pandemic to ensure progressive survival of an industry estimated to have a membership of 14 million out of the country’s population of 46.7 million, an industry leader said.
George Ototo, managing director of Kenya Union of Savings and Credit Co-operatives, said during an interview in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Wednesday that COVID-19 will be with us as various studies are showing.
Ototo said that for now, the industry has taken several measures to ensure it manages the impact of the lockdown.
“We have told the SACCOS to avoid long term credit but rather opt for smaller short-term credit whose intermediation or frequency of transactions is high,” he said.
Kenya’s SACCOS industry, whose core activity is savings and credit services to members, is the biggest of its kind in the entire African continent, according to the World Council of Credit Unions.
“COVID-19 was unexpected and devastating. We have to find new ways to adapt to it for the industry to survive,” said Ototo. Enditem
