Rwanda | Nyaruguru district: All sectors to get Sacco offices by the end of 2012-2013

Nyaruguru district leadership, in Southern Rwanda, has vowed that each of its 14 sectors will be having a brand new Sacco (Savings and credit cooperative) office facility by the end of the 2012-2013 performance contracts’ exercise in a bid to enhance good service delivery.

According to Fabien Niyitegeka, Nyaruguru district Deputy Mayor in charge of Finance, Economy and Development, Saccos have so far been operating in tiny, makeshift offices at the sectors’ headquarters, which has been hindering good service delivery. The Sacco in Nyabimata sector has been in an even challenging working environment – operating in a rental facility.

“We want to enhance good service delivery”, said Deputy Mayor Niyitegeka.

And Nyaruguru district Mayor, François Habitegeko, even went a step further to stress the pledge.

“Every Sacco branch has now enough financial resources to achieve that [building its office]”, said Mayor Habitegeko.

To date, the Sacco in Munini sector has its brand new office already completed. 13 more Saccos – matching the number of 13 more sectors – are yet to follow suit, with some of them having already started laying the foundations for the new buildings.

The plan to build Sacco office facilities comes after a June capacity-building training workshop for 70 agents and managers of Saccos in all 14 sectors of Nyaruguru district. An important move in a district where close to 80,000 people out of the district’s estimated 270,000 population (the figure is likely to change following this year’s population and housing census) interact with banks and other micro finance institutions, reveals Gad Mukiza, a district officer in charge of investments and cooperatives.

The Savings and credit cooperatives at the sector level started in 2009 after a countrywide research established that 21 per cent of Rwandans were, by then, working with banking institutions. The Rwandan government then initiated Umurenge Sacco (Sacco at the sector level) to help people interact more with micro finance institutions and combat poverty.