12 Feb 2019

Motswedi Savings and Credit Co-operative Society (SACCOS) is transforming to be a cooperative for government departments and parastatal organisations.

Motswedi SACCOS board chairperson Mr Molemi Tsheboeng said in an interview after the regional meeting in Palapye that Motswedi SACCOS used to be a co-operative society for employees in the then ministries of agriculture as well as trade and industry.

He said Motswedi SACCOS aimed at providing quality, affordable financial services to its members and to improve their socio-economic well-being.

To achieve this goal, Mr Tsheboeng said Motswedi SACCOS was looking forward to committing itself to be the best financial service provider to its members through computerisation of its services.

Further, Mr Tsheboeng said the on-going computerisation process of the co-operative society would improve communication between Motswedi SACCOS with its members and it would enhance efficiency.

He added that the computerised system would allow customers to see their loan and savings statements on monthly basis on the agreed date and time, adding that the statements would also be sent through e-mails for easy access.

Mr Tsheboeng stated that the tender for computerisation project was advertised openly for international capable companies as no local company bid for this tender.

The project, he said, was awarded to a Kenyan company because Kenya was the only country in Africa with lots of savings and co-operative societies.
The selected Kenyan company, he said, also offered a reasonable charge for implementation of the computerisation process.

He said members would be charged P10 transaction fee to enable the cooperative to pay suppliers.

Mr Tsheboeng encouraged government and parastal employees to join Motswedi SACCOS because co-operative societies contributed to 40 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product of the country.

He also called on the youth to join the cooperative as the majority of its members were elderly people.

For his part, one of the board members Mr Mpho Phologolo said Motswedi SACCOS was working towards transforming from saving and credit co-operative society to a commercial bank.

Meanwhile, the marketing manager Ms Priscilla Rabasimane described loans and savings services offered by Motswedi SACCOS as reliable and more affordable than that of other financial institutions