Cooperative societies are being urged to consider joint ventures and strategic alliances to drive business growth, as discussed at a national cooperative leadership forum. The captains of industry in the cooperative movement emphasized the need for these institutions to explore new avenues for growth. Nelson Kuria, Cooperative Insurance Company (CIC) Chair, highlighted the importance of tapping into new opportunities for economic development and urged members to seek partnerships with export companies, banks, dairy companies, insurers, manufacturing units, processing plants, and transport companies.
Kuria stressed the importance of leadership and good governance, citing the successful establishment of institutions such as the Cooperative Bank of Kenya, CIC, cooperative farmers’ unions, and credit unions, which are now competing with commercial banks. This successful growth is attributed to leadership practices and good governance embraced over the years.
Daniel Marube, CEO Cooperative Alliance of Kenya (CAK), highlighted Kenya’s top rank in Africa and seventh in the world, emphasizing the establishment of the institutions and enhanced saving culture. He mentioned that other African countries have visited Kenya for benchmarking.
David Mategwa, National Chairman, Kenya National Police Deposit Taking Sacco, stressed the critical role of technology in the evolution of Saccos and the need for them to invest in technology to remain relevant and avoid obsolescence.
The forum also acknowledged challenges such as governance issues, cyber security threats, low technology uptake, limited youth and women participation, demographic shifts in membership, and debt accumulation in the cooperative movement.
Good Leadership
The Cooperative Movement in Kenya has seen substantial growth over the years thanks to the implementation of integrated and fast-tracking business opportunities.
Kuria emphasized the pivotal role of leadership in the remarkable development of the cooperative movement, noting significant progress in deposits, membership, and influence on growth in other sectors. However, he also acknowledged the pressing need for improved leadership and ethics to unlock greater opportunities at the national, county, and individual levels. Emphasizing the significance of good leadership, Kuria stated that everything depends on it and stressed the potential of cooperatives to unleash opportunities when people collaborate and work together.
Marube underscored the need for honesty and integrity in leadership. He identified challenges such as bad governance, misuse of members’ resources, cybersecurity, low technology uptake, and low participation of youth and women.
He emphasized the need to lay a foundation for future cooperatives, indicating that despite the movement’s past success, it is not sufficient. He mentioned that despite the rising cost of living in the country, there has been growth in savings
Representing Worker Cooperatives predominantly consisting of youth, Tindi Sitati urged leaders in the cooperative movement to engage with and create opportunities for worker cooperatives, particularly in the jua kali sector, which includes technicians, messengers, carpenters, electricians, plumbers, painters, and steel fixers. Worker cooperatives are owned, controlled, and managed by their working members and seek to provide employment opportunities for the youth.
The International Labour Organization reports that the global youth unemployment rate is at 13 per cent, three times the rate for adults. The Federation of Kenya Employers indicates that 67 per cent of the youth are unemployed, highlighting the critical need to address youth unemployment and involve them in cooperative initiatives.
Looking ahead, he added that with 65 percent of the cooperative members maturing and another youth population below 35 percent, leaders are proactively planning to bring youth on board to leadership and also to participate in wealth creation within the cooperative business model.
