The Metropolitan National Sacco has embraced technology in its new strategy to attract and retain clients.
A few years ago, a report by the Sacco Societies Regulatory Authority (Sasra) blamed the lack of embracing technology on their operations thereby losing much to mobile apps.
Technology is at the centre of the second phase of transformation as discussed in the last Annual General Meeting (AGM).
We are now embarking on phase two which will involve leveraging on technology to improve on service delivery, rolling out of new products and launching an online banking platform,” Mwangi said.
In 2018/2019, the Deposit Taking Sacco suffered a major setback as the loans advanced to members surpassed savings, some members were leaving because of the delays in processing their salaries and loans, more others had applied to stop being members of the Sacco and non-perfoming loans (NPLs) amounted to over Sh1.2 billion.
It took the intervention of the Cooperative Bank of Kenya to salvage the situation.
Co-op Bank through its Co-op Consultancy build capacity for the Sacco’s long term sustainability and also restructure the Sacco’s funding requirements to better manage the members’ monthly loan demands as well as the overall liquidity flows.
An approval of the transformation strategy at the 2019 Annual General Meeting (AGM) also put the Sacco on the path to recovery, this year, they reported that deposits by members grew by 6 per cent to close at Sh7.32 billion, they also recovered over Sh110 million of NPLs, attracted new members, retained those who wanted to leave and brought back those who had left, and appointed a new Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
The new CEO Benson Mwangi said, “Following the approval of the transformation strategy at the 2019 Annual General Meeting (AGM), we have recruited an additional 167 new members and received 2070 membership reinstatements from the previous period. In that period, we have also seen a rise in the number of members wishing to reverse their earlier requests to withdraw their membership”.
Launch of m–metro cash
The second phase of the transformation strategy which is now live has seen the introduction of M-Metro Cash.
M-Metro Cash is a Mobile banking solution service where the Sacco members can undertake transactions at their convenience on the palm of their hands.
Metropolitan National Sacco Limited has a variety of services including loans.
Technology and costs
The second phase of the transformation strategy is now live. The Sacco, which started as a Teachers’’ only savings group is planning to launch an online banking platform.
We are now embarking on phase two which will involve leveraging on technology to improve on service delivery, rolling out of new products and launching an online banking platform,” Mwangi said.
The changes at deposit-taking Metropolitan Sacco’s strategy are anchored on diversification, customer service excellence and development of new products.
The new technology-driven strategy has even reduced the Sacco’s costs of doing business.
“The operational efficiency initiatives resulted in an overall cost reduction of Sh96 million, mainly driven by savings in financial and administrative expenses which were further powered by enhanced uptake of digital service delivery channels,” the CEO said
Kenyan Business Feed is the top Kenyan Business Blog. We share news from Kenya and across the region. To contact us with any alert, please email us to [email protected]