Wakenya Pamoja Sacco Society's management has appealed to the Coffee Development Fund (CoDF) management to consider increasing its loans to the Sacco from sh100 million to sh200 million to cater for the increasing demand for loans from small-holder coffee growers in the Gusii region.
The Sacco's CEO, Vincent Oigo, has appealed to CoDF to increase its lending to the Sacco so that its clients, who constitute majority coffee farmers, can access the credit services to boost their coffee farming activities.
Speaking on Monday evening in his office at the Sacco's Kahawa House head office in Kisii town, Oigo disclosed that formerly the farmers feared applying for the loans but the situation has since changed and they are overwhelmingly applying for the loans to improve on their coffee crop husbandry and production.
Oigo clarified that the loans are government funds channeled to the Sacco for onward lending to individual coffee farmers but in groups of five members guaranteeing one another at an interest rate of 10% p.a. on a reducing balance.
''This is a government fund channeled through our Sacco and it is designed for farmers harvesting 1 kg of coffee per stem per crop year. It is disbursed in intervals depending on the coffee production cycle or calendar,'' stated Oigo.
Part of the loan is given in kind.
Oigo further disclosed that since coffee is a seasonal crop, the loans beneficiaries repayment period is spread up to 36 months with the Sacco recovering the loans from individual farmers based on their coffee proceeds in a given coffee crop season.