Lending Rates: Cooperative Bank of Kenya Can Kill Savings and Credit Cooperatives

The announcement by the Cooperative Bank of Kenya (CBK) that it has increased its lending rates from 12 per cent to 17 per cent may as well be the end of Kenya’s famed cooperative movement as we know it today. Set up by the cooperative movement as the bank for cooperatives, CBK has slowly been moved away from cooperative practices to a radicalized commercial bank.

How Commercial Banks Inept Policies Helped Savings and Credit Societies to Grow

The year 1997 will always remain an important one in the history of Kenya’s savings and credit cooperative movement. That year commercial banks arrogantly closed out of their banking services, a large number of savings and credit cooperatives (saccos) members by raising their minimum balances and account running expenses way out of the reach of the average Kenyan wage earner. That single action spurred saccos to transform themselves into micro-banks.

The Growing Power of Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies in Kenya

Will savings and credit cooperative societies eventually phase out banks? This is the question that many experts in the banking industry are grappling with as they watch the growing power and spread of savings and credit cooperative societies.

Learn from the Experts: How to start and Successfully Run Cooperatives

In Kenya, we are heavily dependent on cooperatives. Ever since the British colonialist started the first cooperative in 1920s, Kenyans have not looked back. Today we have cooperatives formed by farmers, cooperatives formed by traders and cooperatives formed by area groups. But the most powerful and widespread cooperatives are those formed by workers.