Chakwera joins Sacco to set the pace

President Lazarus Chakwera stunned thousands of Malawians gathered at Civo Stadium in Lilongwe yesterday when he registered with a savings and credit cooperative organisation(Sacco) .

The President, who was the guest of honour at this year’s International Cooperatives Day commemorations, has joined the Civil Servants Sacco and called on everyone in the country to join Saccos.

Chakwera said: “My wish is that everyone should be a member of cooperatives and contribute to creating wealth and jobs so that we can move forward. I also thank the leadership of cooperatives for accepting my membership.”

He emphasised the need for people to dispel the mentality that only big companies can grow, highlighting that even such companies rely on cooperatives to produce.

Earlier, a cooperatives’ representative, Denis Kalekeni, shared some statistics.
He said by June 2023, cooperatives had over 63 000 members with total assets standing at K22 billion, savings at K10 billion, and loans at K16.3 billion.
Kalekeni added that the net surplus at the close of the year 2022 was K4.2 billion.

He appealed to the government to review the cooperatives legal framework, which has not been updated since its operationalisation in 1988.
“We need a new legal framework to guide the operations of cooperatives because the one in use now is very old and has outlived its relevance. The cooperatives policy has not been reviewed since 1988,” said Kalekeni.

Minister of Trade and Industry Simplex Chithyola Banda stated that the ministry is working hard to put in place a Cooperative Act and establish structured markets and warehouses for cooperative produce.

He urged cooperatives to focus on value addition while prioritising quality to penetrate the international market.
“As a ministry, we are already working on a number of these strategies, but the cooperatives themselves need to make a meaningful contribution. So let us all move together,” appealed the minister.

He also suggested the establishment of a cooperative college aligned with the Ministry of Education to build the capacity of cooperatives.
This year’s commemoration, organised by the Malawi Federation of Cooperatives (Mafeco), was held under the theme ‘Cooperatives: Partners for Accelerated Sustainable Development’.