This law provides for licensing, regulation, supervision and promotion of SACCO societies and for establishment of SACCOs.
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This statute seeks to provide for the licensing, regulation, supervision and promotion of Sacco societies and provides for the establishment of Sacco societies. Sacco societies play a huge role in financing housing with estimates indicating that Saccos have approximately an asset base of Ksh 1.3 trillion, hold deposits and savings of about Ksh. 885 billion and a loan portfolio of up to Ksh. 860 billion, according to the SASRA Annual Supervision Report 2020.
· Section 4 establishes the Sacco Societies Regulatory Authority (SASRA) whose functions under Section 5 include: licensing, regulating, and supervising Sacco societies.
· Section 23 of the Act forbids any carrying out of deposit-taking Sacco business without a valid licence issued by SASRA and being registered under the Cooperative Societies Act 1997.
· Under part IV of the Act on the governance of Sacco societies, there is provided for minimum capital requirements, minimum liquid assets, limits on loans and credit facilities, and some restrictions on insider lending as well as investment by Sacco societies. All these provisions on governance are meant to ensure the healthy functioning and stability of Sacco societies, given their prominent role in the economy.
· Section 55 of the Act establishes the Deposit Guarantee Fund which shall provide protection for members’ deposits but not shares, up to Ksh. 100, 000 in respect of each member (section 59). Of note however is that this Fund was never set up, with efforts toward making it operational recently being undertaken. This is urgent considering recent scandals relating to Sacco societies.[1]
· Relatedly, there are plans to set up a Central Liquidity Fund to enable inter-borrowing among Saccos.
