Homa Bay women Sacco receives Sh30m for soya beans, Sorghum and sunflower farming

Members of the recently launched Homa Bay Women Caucus savings and credit cooperative society now have a reason to smile.

The SACCO, launched last month, is a special-purpose vehicle that seeks to drive the economic empowerment agenda targeting various women groups drawn from across the eight sub-counties.

On Friday, the SACCO whose patron is Dr Raymond Omollo, the Principal Secretary, of Internal Security and National Administration received Sh30 million from Pepea Capital.

Pepea (To mean "Soar" in Swahili) Capital, is a pioneer pan-regional Sustainable Finance marketplace for MSMEs and Investors across Africa that enables and facilitates the meeting of supply and demand for sustainable finance.

According to the SACCO's chairperson Jane Akinyi Oriya, the money that will be channelled through the women's cooperative will support the production of soybean, Sorghum, and sunflower farming.

So far, 1, 300 women who are engaged in the production of crops and are registered members of the SACCO have been identified according to Oriya.

Speaking with the Star on Sunday, the Sacco chairperson Ms Oriya, said empowering women can be done either at the individual level or by employing collective approaches such as establishing mechanisms for women's equal participation and equitable representation.

"We want to involve women at all levels. This will enhance their participation in both economic and political processes thus being able to articulate their concerns and needs.

PS Omollo has been advocating for Promoting the fulfillment of women's potential through education, skill development, and employment.

On Sunday Ms Oriya noted that the PS has been giving paramount importance to the elimination of poverty, illiteracy and ill health among women by working on policies geared towards eliminating all practices that discriminate against women

" Dr Omollo has been assisting women to establish and realize their economic growth and rights by adopting appropriate measures that improve women's ability to earn income beyond the traditional occupations, and achieve economic self-reliance," She said.

"He is also keen to ensure women's equal access to the labour market and social security systems, a crucial focus by President William Ruto's administration to reduce old-age dependency ratios and make most of Kenyans financially stable," she added.

Dr Omollo told the Star that economic empowerment and autonomy of women and the improvement of their political, social, economic and health status are essential for the achievement of sustainable development.

"This is a key focus by the Kenya Kwanza Government," the PS noted.

He said that as a developing country, Kenyan women face numerous threats to their lives, health and well-being as a result of their lack of power, influence, participation and partnership.

"We are trying to help Homa Bay women caucus Sacco, and other such initiatives by helping them to establish partnerships with various investors for the improvement of women’s well-being and for development in general," he added.

The SACCO's leadership is keen on levelling the playing field to ensure equity between men and women.

"These approaches require policy and programme actions that will improve women's access to secure livelihoods and economic resources, remove legal impediments to their participation in public life, and raise social awareness through effective programmes of education and mass communication," said the chairperson.

"We want to ensure that these efforts will also help enhance women’s decision-making capacity at all levels and in all spheres of life," she said.

Ms Oriya said the Sacco will be engaged in Women's economic empowerment initiatives as one way of elevating the status of women in society through providing opportunities for women to access resources and realize economic and political emancipation.

The Sacco officials, who were present during the unveiling of the support by Pepea Capital included Mary Ascon, Grace Dinda and Benter Dwasi.

The officials welcomed the support provided by Pepea Capital which they noted will greatly boost the implementation of soybean, sunflower and sorghum farming within Homa Bay County.