Group Savings Master Class

In a bid to ensure that community savings banks minimizes risks and loses, DWASCO SACCO on Friday 18 november 2022, trained 45 savings groups in financial literacy through a group savings masterclass.

Speaking in an interview on the sidelines of the training, DWASCO SACCO CEO, Treza Malata said her organization had taken the initiative after noting the challenges the savings groups were facing.

“The groups had been facing challenges due to lack of knowledge on how to minimize risks, which resulted into loses as incidences of theft were rampant” she said.

Malata observed that many Savings groups do not have formal agreements on how their groups should run, “and this is a recipe for disagreements”. 

She said: “Some groups lend out money but there are no written rules on what needs to be considered before one access the loan.

Malata hoped that after the training the groups would formalize their agreements as well as avoid keeping cash in their houses to minimize risks.

Treasurer for Reformation Savings Group, Catherine Lapani, hailed DWASCO SACCO for the financial Literacy training initiative, observing it will revolutionize the way the Savings groups operate. She observed that in some groups, treasurers and borrowers had committed suicide or disappeared over misappropriating group funds and/or failure to settle loans.

With a membership of over 5000, Dwangwa SACCO managed to acquire assets of up to K1 billion which is a benchmark for a performing SACCO, and posted a surplus of K67 million in 2021.