20 Nov 2023

 Motswedi Savings and Credit Co-operative Society (SACCOS) is reportedly seating on a healthy financial efficiency of P212 million loan book.

Speaking during a regional meeting held in Tsabong on November 18, Board Chairperson, Mr Tshepiso Kgarubane, said the co-operative society stood on good business credit with a strong financial performance of P212 million loan book which was a key success indicator.

Mr Kgarubane said so far, ordinary members’ savings stood at P197 million while the co-operative society’s current account stood at P65 million, a successful track record of prudent financial management.

He said on quarterly basis, Motswedi SACCOS collected about P5 million on average generated from a base of about 4 000 members.

There co-operative society, he said, had over the years been dominated by elderly members aged 61 and above but that changed recently with the age group 36-50 years assuming dominance.

The society has 4 000 members. Those in the age bracket of 18-35 years are 679, age group 36-50 years are 1 615, members above 61 years are 1 247.

He expressed concern that interest from the youth population in participating in the cooperative society remained low hence the need to recruit more. Young people, he said, would ensure sustainability and inject an innovative stint in the co-operative society.

Mr Kgarubane said they continued to develop the society by making improvements to service delivery, and acquiring assets having one property in Gaborone and procured office space on the 6th floor of Zambezi Towers in Gaborone’s Central Business District, to ensure accessibility convenience for clients.

He said the society beefed up its human resource capital through inclusion of records officer, human resources officer, administration, and the accounting division, to be able to adequately serve their members.

He said they have installed Wi-Fi and procured media equipment to drive member education targeted at improved service delivery as well as recruitment of new members. Motswedi SACCOS introduced a new digital platform for board members elections to transform the way they had been conducting business. The society, he said, was driven by the values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity, and solidarity to ensure financial prudence.

He called on members of the society to work together to safe guard what they had collectively built together adding that some of the cooperative societies were undergoing liquidation as they could not cope with competition.

Mr Kgarubane said the mushrooming of mega chain stores and multinationals adversely affected cooperative societies adding that competition was stiff and therefore it was difficult for co-operative societies to survive.

“We need to be united to be able to survive,” he said.

The main challenge was that auditing of financials lagged behind. Nonetheless, he assured members that their money was safe as three gate keepers were put in place to each append a signature as part of financial oversight.

Mr Kgarubane said a board charter responsible for oversight of all processes was in place and performed its role.

Commenting on the society’s performance, former board member, Mr Moroka Tumaeletse, raised concern at the delayed financial reports which he said had been the norm with the society and added that the backlog of financial audits must come to an end as it dated as far back as 2020. 

He However, appreciated new ongoing developments and also that for financial year 2022/23, members were credited their interest on April. ENDS