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Unaitas loans over Sh2bn in plan to transform chamas

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Unaitas chief executive officer Tony Mwangi. File PHOTO | NMG

Unaitas Sacco has disbursed over Sh2 billion in loans to chamas this year as it seeks to transform the self-help groups into investment vehicles.

This comes against the backdrop of cautious approach to lending and enhanced provisioning for loan loss by the sacco’s management in light of tough lending environment.

According to the management, the chamas have defaulted only 3.4 per cent of the amount compared to 10.6 per cent for the lending industry as at end of October.

Chief executive Tony Mwangi, speaking on the sidelines of its second national Unaitas chamas conference held in Nairobi over the weekend, said the sacco would organise regular training to aid the transformation of chamas into investments groups.

“Most chamas have been investing in land buying. That could be a good or bad decision because when you buy land and don’t add value to it the benefits are much depressed. We have now started advising our members to think of other areas like agro-business, energy, mining and manufacturing sectors for possible investment opportunities,” he said.

READ: Unaitas Sacco seeks licence to operate bank

There are over 300,000 chamas in the country out of which 5,000 are members of Unaitas Sacco.

In 2016, the sacco members’ deposit rose by 20 per cent to Sh6.46 billion from Sh5.38 billion recorded in 2015.

Last year, Unaitas invested in an ICT infrastructure and this year it has expanded its branch network to Embu, Meru and Kisii.

In 2018, the sacco plans to open branches in Kisumu, Mombasa and Eldoret, and roll out agency banking to increase services and convenience to members.