AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE total outstanding loans disbursed by Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies (Saccos) increased by 45.6 per cent in the quarter ending September last year, which is a positive sign of increased credit to finance and stimulate various economic activities.
The Central Bank’s Consolidated Zonal Economic Performance Report for the quarter ending September last year shows that the total outstanding loans disbursed by Saccos rose to 430.8bn/- compared to 234.3bn/-.
The value of shares of the Saccos members in the country decreased by 12.8 per cent to 47.5bn/-in the period under review compared to 54.5bn/- registered in the corresponding period 2019.
The total savings by the Saccos members increased to 202.5bn/- in the quarter under review compared to 192.8bn/-in 2019, which is equivalent to 5.03 per cent change. The total number of loans rose to 921.6bn/-in the year ending September from 912.4bn/- extended in the corresponding period 2019, which is equivalent to 1.0 per cent change.
During the reference period, the members’ total deposits in the Saccos declined by 2.5 per cent increase to 45.5bn/-compared to 46.7bn/-in the period ending September 2019. The number of Sacco’s members in the country decreased to 651,675 in the year ending September last year compared to 728,727.8 in the period ended 2019, which is equivalent to 10.5 per cent change.
During the period under review, the number of Saccos in the country decreased by 3,413 which is 15.1 per cent fall from 4,023 in the corresponding period in the year 2019. Northern zone accounted for 59.8 per cent and 45.3 per cent of disbursed loans and savings, respectively.
Saccos play important role in socioeconomic development of members and communities in general as they enable easy access to financial services to people, encourage savings. They also create employment opportunities, support directly community development effort like helping community access to social services and stimulate growth.
The need to increase access to affordable financial services and products for a wider population especially the poor, low-income households and micro, small- and medium- scale enterprises becomes fundamental.
With the exception of savings and loans issued, Saccos performed relatively well across the zones as of September last year.
