A SACCOs is a democratic, unique member driven, self-help co-operative. It is owned, governed and managed by its members who have the same common bond: working for the same employer, belonging to the same church, labor union, social fraternity or living/working in the same community.
The SACCOs aims a meeting the financial needs of all its members men/women, old/young, rich/poor in particular, by encouraging savings and granting loans to the members. In order to provide the best and most durable satisfaction to its members, the SACCOs is concerned about its own financial stability and to do so it must achieve profitable management on an ongoing basis. The mission of the SACCOs is to make available on site, to anyone wishing to join it, financial services under the best conditions, while enabling the cooperative to cover its operating expenses and providing for the economic education for its members.
The importance of SACCOs
The importance of the SACCOs in poverty alleviation and the general economic growth of Tanzania should not be under estimated; down here are the special features of the SACCOs which make them important and special financial institutions on which the government of Tanzania should pay attention, these features are;- Accessibility; – most of these microfinance institutions are established even in rural areas where banks cannot be established bringing financial services closer to the people who could otherwise not be accessible to these services, this increases entrepreneurial morale to Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) operators in Tanzania. The SACCOs are more flexible and not complicated as they are established by the people themselves, therefore the people themselves can establish by laws which are more flexible accommodating even the people who are extremely poor and economically marginalized, also no business plan or any detailed description of their business is required for the members to access loans. The use of collateral substitutes; So long as these people are poor, therefore the majority does not have the formal collateral required by the banks, instead of these collateral substitutes like group guarantee, deposited savings and un-surveyed houses are accepted as collateral substitutes for members to access loans.
The SACCOs also as Microfinance institutions encourage savings to their members, the culture which was not present in the past, these savings can be used for investment and also, they receive dividends each year which is also an added income to the members. The pricing of their loans is not very high as it is determined by the member themselves and therefore it is fairly done considering the sustainability of their cooperative. SACCOs are targeted to serve the poor, this is done through organizing groups, train them on the necessary requirements for them to access the loans and the way the loans are to be spent, this ensures a good repayment rate and in turn these microfinance institutions becomes more strong to serve the poor as they don’t lose capital out of defaults. The screening of good clients is done by the members themselves as they become responsible in case of default; this reduces the screening cost which is avoided by the formal banks and also reduces the risk of losing money through defaults. SACCOs help individuals and households to meet their basic needs and protect against risk. When the households and individuals have basic needs and protected against risks, the possibility of establishing small business is great.
Improvement of economic welfare of the community and enterprise stability or growth of low-income households is the role of the SACCOs as microfinance institutions in Tanzania. If the community is well off and enterprises are stable the development of the latter is unquestionable. The SACCOs as Microfinance institutions have the role of economically empowering all kinds of people, thus promoting gender equality and improve household wellbeing. The availability of small loans through the SACCOs within the community brings about the possibility of establishment of small businesses some of which can develop and result to big business establishments. The SACCOs also have been a source of employment to the people who work as employees of the SACCOs; hence they are part of the employers list.
In this light it’s hard to disagree that SACCOs requires an appropriate digital system that is to support the operation of the SACCOs. This invite me to introduce Amala App Suite as the best software system that is designed to solve the challenges that have been affecting the SACCOs in Tanzania. It gives an accurate compilation of member’s data; it supports the accuracy of the information in an appropriate manner from the members and the leaders of SACCOs in operation of daily duties. Amala App Suite gives the configurations solution that helps the Loan Management software of the SACCOs. This helps in allocation of different loans of various types and more so; it guarantees the user to the best service of high quality from the well skilled team of professionals in technological consultancy.
Amala App Suite is a system that will help the business expand and meet its demands by simplifying the tasks that the sector has hold for so very long. Let Amala App Suite be the savior of your microfinance business management; by kindly visiting us to get your affordable solutions and services that could lead your business to the paramount of hope gross profit and safety to your business operations.
