The County government of Trans Nzoia has challenged entrepreneurs in
the region to embrace the cooperatives business model in order to
maximize returns in their various economic ventures.
Trans Nzoia Deputy Governor Dr. Stanley Kenei Tarus noted that most entrepreneurs in the region registered poor growth owing to limited financial capability brought about by limited financial muscle. “Cooperatives are the best vehicles that can assist entrepreneurs to
access financial credit which can help them boost their growth,” he said.
Speaking in Kitale, he commended the growth of cooperative societies
within the County following sensitization and support by the
department of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Cooperative
development. “We have a total of 126 cooperatives with an accumulated members’ deposit of Kshs 1.3 billion, an asset value of Kshs 2 billion, loan
portfolio of Kshs 1.3 billion and membership of 38,415,” he said.
The Trans Nzoia County cooperatives director Samuel Warui said limited
capacity among officials of cooperative societies in the region remains a challenge in enhancing efficiency in their services. “We also challenge those wishing to join co-operative societies to take due diligence by counter checking their eligibility with our officers at both County and sub county levels to avert cases of being defrauded,” said Mr. Warui.
He disclosed that most residents within the County have been duped by
some unscrupulous people who have been roaming around pretending to be officers from several cooperative societies only to fleece the
unsuspecting members.
This comes even as residents in the County have been raising several
complaints concerning being defrauded by some unsuspecting people who
have taken advantage of little knowledge from the locals concerning
cooperative societies.
The chairman of the Trans Nzoia County cooperatives development
Committee Daniel Kitua said frequent power outages have been affecting
the operations of most deposit-taking cooperative societies in the region which have no capacity to invest in back up power systems. “Technological systems that we use in our operations require a constant power supply for linkages to branches and monitoring by our regulators. We are affected by frequent blackouts,” said Mr. Kitau, who also chairs the Trans County Sacco.
He called upon the Kenya Power and Lighting Company to stabilize its
power production and minimize power outages in order for the
cooperatives to work efficiently without losing millions of shilling
as a result of power failures within the County.
