KISUMU, Kenya, M’ay 19 – Harambee Sacco has embarked on a mission to retain retirees as lifetime members by offering tailor made products to keep their membership.
The Sacco Managing Director Dr George Ochiri says it has been a challenge seeing retirees’ withdrawing from the saccos.
“These members, some of whom have saved for over 40 years with us, they are the people with the money, we don’t want them to run away with the money,” he said.
The CEO says the retirees control a substantial amount of deposits and any withdrawal will lead to erosion of deposits.
Ochiri says they are reaching out to their members, in service and those who have retired in a bid to keep their membership intact.
Speaking in Kisumu on Monday during a roundtable meeting with their top savers in western Kenya region, the CEO says in the past, retirees after losing their monthly pay slip opted to stop banking with them.
“The roundtable is to give them hope that we will continue serving them just like when they were in employment,” he said.
Ochiri says when the scheme was started in 2019, many retirees were withdrawing from them, thus the idea to work on retention modalities.
“Because of the benefits which are self-visible in our Sacco, more and more retirees’ are retaining their membership,” he said.
He says retirees may find it valuable to maintain membership if they access special products and services designed to meet their needs.
The CEO further announced that already, the Sacco has a portfolio of 3,000 top savers, those who have saved at least Sh1 million.
This, he says, translates to Sh2 billion savings at Harambee Sacco.
“But the total savings at Harambee is a bit huge, we are at Sh. 28 billion, because of the numbers, so it is a significant percentage but also the other members have also contributed fairly well,” he said.
