RBM eyes the faith community on saccos

The Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) is eyeing the faith community to establish Savings and Credit Cooperatives (Saccos) as one way of  promoting a saving culture.

Speaking in Mzuzu on Tuesday during a training of leadership of the synod on sacco, RBM principal examiner on financial cooperatives, Dickson Chidumu said church Saccos can amass a lot of money as is the case in Ghana where the backbone of the cooperative sector is the church.

“This is why we are now training these churches to have the required knowledge. From Mzuzu, we are now heading to Lilongwe where we will conduct a similar training with the Lilongwe Diocese of Catholic Church, Anglican Church and Muslim community,” he said.

Chidumu said with support from the World Bank, the central bank is planning to access micro finance processing hub, a platform that will be shared by all licensed saccos for money transfers and running automated teller machines.

Livingstonia Synod Church and Society programme director Moses Mkandawire said its saccos in 28 presbyteries will continue to provide financial services to its membership to enhance a savings culture.

He said most of the synod’s members struggle financially and hoped the  sacco will help in alleviating poverty.

Malawi Union of Savings and Credit Cooperatives (Muscco) chief operations officer Fumbani Nyangulu said if the church is capacitated to form saccos, most Malawians will be included in the saving system.

Malawi has 36 licensed saccos, according to Muscco.

The central bank started regulating saccos in 2011 after the Financial Cooperatives Act was enacted to provide for the regulation and supervision of financial savings and credit cooperative societies.

However, out of all the saccos, the church which commands a large membership in the country had been left out.