By Peter Atsiaya
Bungoma Teachers’ Sacco is owed more than Sh38 million in unpaid loans.
Sacco Finance Manager Mackline Wamukota said defaulters had affected the smooth operations of the organisation, adding that they had put in place mechanisms to recover the money.
“Defaulters owe us more than Sh38 million as per January this year,” Mr Wamukota told The Standard in his office in Bungoma town yesterday.
He pointed out that the Sacco had this year given out loans worth more than Sh180 million to members.
“Members have received loans amounting to more than Sh96 million from Front Office Services Activities and over Sh90 million from back office,” he explained.
He noted that they were issuing loans amounting to four times the shares a member who qualified had.
Wamukota noted that a new system where they feed loan details for members online has helped in ensuring that members do not default.
He denied Press reports that the Sacco was faced with massive membership withdrawal due to malpractices.
According to him, the Sacco has a total of 6, 531 members with 2,419 for Fosa and Back office have 4112 members.
Wamukota noted that the debts had accumulated over a period of ten years and appealed to members to pay the money to enable their colleagues benefit from loaning services.
The Sacco, he said, has been forced to chop off shares of those who guaranteed the defaulters loans to recover the money.
“We are now chopping off shares of guarantors of the defaulters as one way of recovering the funds from them. The move has made the guarantors pursue the defaulters and have them pay,” he explained.
The official noted that they returned the guarantors’ money once the defaulters repay the loans.
