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Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO) Sacco is considering opening doors to non-members despite its clientele being communities living in the slums, its Manager Collins Odongo has said.
Odongo said the move – still in the pipeline, will see the Kibera-based savings and credit cooperative society increase credit offering as demand for cheap loans among lower households continue to rise.
“This is something we are considering and we are talking internally to see how best we can roll it out but our main focus at the moment is to spread our operations in all slums across the country,” he said.
He was speaking on Saturday during the Sacco’s 5th year anniversary, adding that the institution will also extend capital relief to struggling businesses and individuals hit by the coronavirus pandemic through loans restructuring and moratorium.
“So far we have restructured loans worth over Sh10million since April when the pandemic hit and we hope to extend this to more families affected,” he said
The Central Bank in April directed SMEs to contact their financial providers for assessment and restructuring of loans based on their circumstances with Banks, Saccos and digital lenders coming to the rescue of struggling households.
SHOFCO Sacco which has over 4,000 members today began operations on 2015 and allows slums dwellers to access credit without collateral, jobs or even bank accounts with as little saving as Sh100.
Up to 86 per cent of the Sacco’s members are women, a fact that Shofco’s chief executive Kennedy Odede attributes to the demographics in most slums across the country and mainly Nairobi.