The government has identified the Saccos movement as a key driver in boosting Kenyans' savings culture.
This is among Kenya Kwanza's plan to set up a local pool where the government can borrow to meet its obligations.
The country like most African states has been suffering from chronic low savings rates, primarily attributed to financial illiteracy.
A Global Financial Literacy Survey showed that Kenya has alarmingly low financial literacy levels.
With a population of approximately 50 million people, only 38 per cent of Kenyans are financially literate.
In an effort to change this culture, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua said Kenyans should embrace a saving culture, to cushion the government from foreign borrowing.
“We want to enhance the saving culture in Kenya so that we borrow our money as a country from our own savings. In the past, we have been borrowing money from foreign nations whose citizens have saved yet here we were not saving,” said Gachagua.
He spoke during the 30th anniversary celebrations of Solution SACCO.
The deputy president noted that there are over 14 million people in cooperative movement in Kenya, which if tapped, can boost Kenyan's saving culture.
He backed the move to increase NSSF contributions saying it was for the good of the country.
“We have changed the law, to allow you to save substantially, so I want to commend all those people who are saving so that they plan for their future,” said Gachagua.
Kenya is currently ranked position one in Africa and seventh globally in the cooperative movement, according to the international cooperative alliance assessment.
As of the end of February 2023, SASRA regulated a total of 359-Saccos consisting of 176 Deposit Taking Saccos and 183 Non-Withdrawal Deposit Taking Saccos, serving about six million Kenyans directly as members.
There are about 23,000 cooperatives in Kenya which employ over 500,000 people while creating more than 1.5 million other indirect jobs in interlinked sectors like agriculture.
Agriculture and livestock Cabinet Secretary Mithika Linturi said Solution SACCO has over 30,000 members spread across nine counties, which if properly harnessed, can provide tailor-made solutions to farmers.
“I have discussed with the management of this SACCO, considering the government agenda of ensuring that this country is food secure that this SACCO has designed products to support our farmers to be able to support agribusiness,” said Linturi
The Sacco has an asset base of Sh8.3 billion and a loan book exceeding Sh6.8 billion.
