Uasin Gishu County government has set aside a Sh70 Million for the strengthening of cooperatives societies in an effort to improve the livelihoods of its residents
Speaking in his office on Monday, Uasin Gishu County Governor Jackson Mandago said that cooperatives societies are major contributors to the growth of the economy. He said that by strengthening them creation of wealth and jobs in the county will be boosted.
“Cooperatives are vehicles that can mobilize resources for economic growth. They can also offer loans at a lower rate than banking institutions. In the 70 Million set for cooperatives 20 Million will be channeled to women and people with disability groups,” he said.
He added that out of about approximately 500 cooperatives in the county about 300 are dormant, these he says the county government intends to have them fully functional.
“Cooperatives should use the money allocated to them wisely and account for every dime. We know that lack of transparency has been the major cause for collapse of many cooperatives,” he warned.
Mandago said that his government has set aside 7 million for benchmarking and offering training to cooperatives officials to make sure that members use the money borrowed well since at the long run they would have to repay.
He added the county cooperatives officers would be increased to have at least one in each ward to offer their assistance for cooperatives to thrive.
“In the next two years we hope to have 70% of Uasin Gishu residents as members of cooperatives,” he said.
H e challenged all the financial institutions in the county to design a product for cooperatives to enable them borrow at lower rates suggesting that they might also be compelled to do the same.
“As the chairman of the North Rift economic block I can suggest we form our financial institution will offer loans to cooperatives at rates as low as 3 percent,” said Mandago.