Harambee Sacco announces 9 per cent interest on deposits

 

Harambee Sacco has proposed to pay an all-time high interest on deposits of nine per cent, against 8.5 per cent paid out in 2023, national chairman Macloud Malonza has announced.

Malonza said they are also proposing to pay another all-time high of 15 per cent on share capital up from 12 per cent in 2023.

“This trend is likely not to stop anytime soon. The Board has actually approved a management proposal to award our members an additional 3 per cent rebate on any dividend capitalised and a 2 per cent on any interest on deposit ploughed back to their BOSA account,” he stated.

Malonza made the remarks when the sacco marked the 54th Harambee Sacco Annual Delegates Meeting.

Chief Executive Officer George Ochiri announced that the sacco has registered a net surplus of Sh1.46 billion in 2024 from Sh1.2 billion in 2023.

Ochiri noted that total revenues were trending at Sh5.7 billion in 2023 but are now at Sh7.01 billion.

The net surplus is not construed as profit but as an excess of payments made by the members for the loans borrowed, or the goods and services bought by them from the cooperative.

Ochiri added that total assets in 2023 stood at Sh36.7 billion and grew to Sh38.6 billion by close of business on December 31, 2024.

He noted that a loan book of 29.1 billion in 2023, now stands at an all - time high of Sh32.0B.

Ochiri further noted that the sacco’s core capital in 2023 stood at Sh5.1 billion, the same now stands at Sh6.3 billion with share capital being Sh2.5 billion in 2024 from Sh2.3 billion in 2023.

“While we had our major hits in 2024, we also had our misses. Key to these are the lessons we keep picking up as we move forward. We had planned to open 5 brick and mortar satellite offices across the country, but this never happened,” the CEO added. 

He further noted that they had planned to renovate the Fosa Nairobi Branch and the third floor of the Sacco plaza but didn’t.

“This is yet another project that we have no option but to actualise and we have therefore moved it forward.”

He highlighted the sacco’s strategic theme for 2025 is “exceeding expectation”, which he said is a clarion call to the possibility of the Harambee Sacco “shuttering the glass ceiling of expectations and doing greater than ever imagined before in all aspect of our business arena.”

Malonza noted 2024 was characterized by global and local economic hardships, Gen-Z disruptive political demonstrations and increased tax obligations and statutory deductions.

“Yet despite operating in an increasingly harsh macro-economic environment, coupled with global and regional geopolitical disruptions which raised the cost of doing business and reduced disposable cash across the population, Harambee Sacco remained agile and resilient,” he stated.

Malonza announced that many of the ills that kept pulling the sacco back, have now been dealt with. “As an institution, we now stand free of the burdening past. Harambee Sacco is now compliant with all key statutory ratios,” he stated.