Following on the heels of our farming initiatives where we managed to set up a successful farming “kikunde” we are now moving forward in bounds setting up our SACCOS.
For those that are not aware Savings and Credit Cooperative Society (SACCOS) is one of the types of primary cooperatives societies. It is a private and cooperative financial intermediary where membership is open and voluntary. It belongs to its members who manage it democratically. We have started down the road of setting one up for our porters and crew. Once fully set up it will be self managed (with some initial oversight) and supported to develop more.
Let’s be clear. This is some work. You can see https://www.ushirika.go.tz/ for more info and for swahili speakers / Tanzanians this is something that is essential - the proper and full set up, registration and compliance with government laws and regulations.
How are we doing this? A few key steps:
Time: we have been trialling cooperative work since March 2020 to test what this can look like. We have succeeded and failed cooperative farming and that has given members of our team the experience to carry this forward.
We have a dedicated liaison person (Luhi above! Thanks Luhi for all your work!!) that is there to help us keep this moving forward.
Training and meetings: don’t underestimate this step! To register takes meetings and then we have brought in an instructor experienced in set up and compliance to explain to members what this is (and isn’t) and how to take it forward.
Money: SACCOS set ups take little cash to formally set up BUT to be properly registered and take it forward there are financial requirements, reporting and as per the previous point, training. We’d recommend budgeting around 1m tsh to facilitate the process of getting someone to do liaison, moving trainers around, opening a bank account and so on. You can always do things cheaper but if you’re a company reading this, put some resources in so you can let your members fly! Also, proper operation requires certain minimum startup capital (you can verify on the website links above) as this is a significant amount. If your initiative is small consider looking in to just operating a group or Kikunde for the time being but get proper guidance and advice and keep within the regulatory framework of Tz.
I hope this short post starts others on their way. We’re here to share what we learn, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
