The Malawi Union of Savings and Credit Cooperative (Muscco) has challenged Sucoma Sacco Limited to increase its membership for it to become the largest savings and credit cooperative in Malawi.
Currently, Sucoma, with the membership of 4,600, is the second largest Sacco in the country after United Civil Servants Sacco, formerly Mzimba Sacco which has over 12,000 members and an asset base of K1.3 billion.
Musco Board President Fletcher Mhango said although Sucoma has made good progress in a number of areas including growing its loan book, asset base and profitability for the year ended December 31, 2016, there is still need to boost membership.
Mhango was speaking during the sacco’s 22nd Annual General Meeting which was held at Nchalo in Chikwawa district where the union announced that it had posted a profit of K119 million from K98 million in 2015.
“Your membership is slightly low and you have to seriously consider wooing more people to join because the Sacco system works better with large numbers.
The higher the number of members, the more profits you can make. The more savings you can mobilise, then the more the loan portfolio can grow. Once this is achieved, it can double profitability, loan book and shares, among others,” he said.
Sucoma Board Sacco President Wuleso Wakwana said the union has already put in place a plan to mobilise 500 new members.
“Sucoma Sacco for the past 20 years has been number one before United Civil Servants overtook us. But we want to change this by the end of 2017. We will make sure that assets go above K1 billion and that we become the best Sacco in the country,” Wakwana said.
Guest of Honor at the event Chikwawa District Health Officer Amber Majidu hailed Saccos for improving the livelihoods of people through financial freedom.
“There are three elements of financial freedom and these are savings, investment and insurance. So the Sacco is bringing the culture of saving and then it gives the opportunity to the members to use the savings to invest in businesses and other ventures so that they have money to spend with their families and also acquire assets to improve their livelihoods,” he said.
