Mentor Sacco’s Winning Strategy 

Leading tier one Sacco holds a highly successful 42nd AGM as its income grows and members receive handsome dividends

Mentor Sacco, one of the fastest growing Saccos in Kenya, with an asset base of Kshs. 7.16 billion, recently held a highly successful Annual General Meeting (AGM) that was well attended by its members and other stakeholders.

The sacco`s performance during the 2018 financial year was remarkable. During that period, its total income grew from Kshs. 896,329,058 million (in 2017) to Kshs. 1.04 billion. Total assets on the other hand grew from Kshs. 6.272 billion in 2017 to Kshs. 7.184 billion in 2018. ”Our sacco has now moved to the big league,” noted Mrs. Joyce Ndegwa, the chief executive officer ( CEO), while addressing the members, adding that Mentor is now a tier one sacco in the country because of its remarkable and consistent performance.

The CEO made a passionate appeal to the members to save more and more with the Sacco. “By mobilizing a lot of savings, we shall be able to advance loans and other credit facilities to our members with ease, hence growing our profits,” she said.

During the colourful event, the Chairman, Mr. Anthony Kamau thanked the members, directors and management team of Mentor Sacco for contributing to its success.

“The remarkable performance in 2018 demonstrates the benefits of embracing a focused management strategy and robust business model,” he noted. The good results were achieved against a background of a very challenging operating environment in 2018 that adversely affected the performance of many lenders in the country according to Mr. Kamau. He further added that since 2015, the board has been focusing on building a stable organization, with adequate capitalization and which is resilient enough to withstand external shocks even in times of crisis. “The result of this vision has been a sustained growth in the aggregate core capital and capital adequacy ratios,” he noted.

Offering front office services activity (FOSA), Mentor is regulated by the Sacco Societies Regulatory Authority (SASRA). To that end, it has complied with all the minimum regulatory requirements by SASRA including: core capital total assets and total deposits, institutional capital (total assets), liquidity ratio and maintenance of a portfolio at risk that is not more than five percent.

Mentor Quick Cash

In view of the current trends in the market, Mentor Sacco has put in place a very versatile mobile banking platform that is branded ‘Mentor Quick Cash.’ Through this platform, members can access funds through their mobile phones, channel their income through FOSA and get alerts when their accounts are credited with the same, apply and receive emergency loans, besides being alerted on the status of the loans they have guaranteed. In 2018, over Kshs. 2 billion was transacted over the convenient platform, demonstrating its growing popularity among members. Its other channel of access is the Sacco link card (an automated teller machine card). It also has four full fledged branches namely: Murang’a, Thika, Kenol as well as Ngara in Nairobi. In the same breath, it has five satellite branches: Kangema, Ithanga, Kandara, Kangari and Kiriaini.

Fruits

Owing to the good results above, the members were given handsome dividends as follows: interest rate on share capital at 15%, interest rate on Mazao deposits at 13% and interest rate on all other members` deposits at 11%. Founded in 1977 by members of the teaching profession, the sacco owns the tallest building in Murang`a town and its mantra is: ` Adding value to life`. Mentor Sacco’s doors are now open to the business community, civil servants and members of other professions, besides teaching.