Savings and Credit Cooperative Organisations (SACCOs) could soon receive additional financial support after the government signalled plans to channel more resources to the sector through the National Infrastructure Fund (NIF).

🇰🇪 Breaking It Down

During Ushirika Day celebrations at Uhuru Park, Deputy President Kithure Kindiki explained that transferring eligible projects to the fund would create fiscal space within the national budget for other priority sectors, including the cooperatives sector.

“We are going to create a bit of fiscal space in the budget by offloading some of the projects that can now be funded by the National Infrastructure Fund. Therefore, we will have a little more leeway to fund key sectors, including the cooperatives sector,” he stated.

According to Kindiki, the government is operationalising the NIF, which has already secured Ksh345 billion in seed capital from the sale of state agencies.

📌 What You Need to Know

The promise of increased support comes as the government accelerates reforms aimed at strengthening regulation and restoring public confidence in SACCOs through the Sacco Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2025, which President William Ruto is expected to sign into law within a month.

The additional funding could support the implementation of key reforms, including stronger protection of members’ savings in the event of a SACCO collapse through the proposed Deposit Insurance Fund.

The compensation would be calculated based on a member’s protected deposits after deducting outstanding loans, liabilities and loan guarantee obligations.

The Bill proposes a Ksh100,000 compensation cap , however, lawmakers have opposed the amount as the Bill goes through Parliament, arguing it would expose members with larger savings to significant financial losses.

Funding from the NIF could also help roll out shared technology and digital platforms envisioned under the Bill, enabling smaller SACCOs to reduce operational costs, improve compliance and address disparities in technical capacity.

The plan to channel more resources to the cooperative sector through the NIF signals renewed government efforts to defend the initiative.

📰 Source: Kenyans.co.ke