SMEs
Officials of a Murang’a based Sacco have asked the government to embrace proactive initiatives and policies that will revolutionize small and medium enterprises (SMEs), especially in rural Kenya.
The leaders of Unaitas Sacco have argued that the cost of running small and medium businesses in the country is too high and was facing challenges, mainly attributed to increased taxes and high cost of living.
Led by the Sacco CEO, James Muhoho they observed that financial constraints and high cost of living has affected small and middle income earners’ ability to do business, which in turn affects the operations of some financial institutions like Saccos. Muhoho said their members, who have invested in income generating projects are facing challenges in serving their loans.
“We have our members who took loans to do businesses, but they are struggling to make profits. The increased taxes are partly to blame. The government needs to consider areas to make adjustments so as to protect the small and medium scale businesses,” said the CEO during the launching of a new branch at Ndunyu Chege market in Gatanga Sub County.
The government, he said, needs to enhance strategies and support that target low cadre Kenyans, which empower them to engage in gainful enterprises. The CEO noted that only a few Kenyans are opening new enterprises, while the existing ones are experiencing slow business activities.
This, in turn, has raised the number of people defaulting in loan repayment as they struggle to keep their businesses afloat. In Murang’a, Muhoho lauded the devolved administration for various programmes, aimed at supporting business and farming activities.
He singled out the smart city programme, which targets to improving infrastructure and sanitation in all local trading centres, saying the initiative is greatly boosting business for small scale traders. The provision of subsidies for dairy and mango farmers has also seen increased production and earnings to our farmers. These are some of the programmes that need to be done to help those in the grassroots, he added.
However, Muhoho challenged county administration to deploy more extension officers saying most farmers lack the technical knowhow required to boost their produce and engage in agri-business. The newly opened branch in Ndunyu Chege is expected to serve a large catchment of tea, coffee, dairy and poultry farmers, thus making it easier for members to access financial services.
Unaitas, which has its origin in Murang’a, has a number of branches in other counties and is among the largest Saccos in the country, with an asset base of Sh23.6 billion and a loan book of about Sh20 billion. And with over 400,000 members nationally, the Sacco has deposits amounting to Sh14 billion and profits of over Sh1 billion annually.