Kenya


Our History

Starting in 1980 and continuing consistently from 1997 to 2017, World Council worked with the Kenyan savings and credit cooperative (SACCO) movement in the areas of agricultural development, technology solutions and financial inclusion. IRnet Coop Kenya, WOCCU’s for-profit pilot that was based in Nairobi, was created to help SACCOs develop and implement new technologies, products and services to reach underserved populations. It is now fully owned by the Kenyan Union of Savings and Credit Cooperatives (KUSCCO), a WOCCU credit union member since 2002.

Our trade association members include associations and credit unions/SACCOs throughout East Africa, namely Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Ethiopia. We’ve also conducted development projects throughout the region since the early 1980s. Currently, we are working in Kenya on the USAID Collaborative Development Program to train credit unions on agricultural finance through our agricultural finance toolkit and piloted a fully digital e-SACCO to attract youth members.

Women and Youth. In all of our activities, we take special care to reach women and youth through targeted training and product/service development. In Kenya, we piloted an e-SACCO (named e-Kenya) that meets young adult demands by operating over a mobile platform that offers 24/7 accessibility. It worked by using a web-based platform and an interconnected mobile service provider that allows service to reach even the most remote areas within the country by using existing networks. Also through this project, we launched the Youth Agricultural Project to encourage and educate youth to view agriculture as a means of income and give them access to finance through farmer field schools.

Highlights of past projects are summarized below:

9,237,484 credit union members in Kenya (2020)