The full automation of 416 Umurenge Savings and Credit Cooperatives (SACCOs) across the country will be complete by the end of June, according to John Rwangombwa, Governor of the National Bank of Rwanda.
The automation which began in January 2020, has been cited as the solution to major challenges affecting the sector which had seen losses as a result of the manual system that leaked with an increase of fraud and embezzlement of members’ funds.
ALSO READ: Mad rush to reactivate dormant accounts as SACCOs get automated
Speaking at the presentation of the Monetary Policy and Financial Stability Statement that gave an update on the country’s economic performance and financial state, on March 21, Rwangombwa said the automation is on track to complete as previously anticipated.
He added that the shift from manual to automated operations will address several challenges and improve SACCOs’ operations efficiency in driving access to finance, even in rural areas.
"With automation, SACCOs clients will be able to use digital channels to transact by linking their accounts to payment systems, withdrawing money from their accounts to wallets and vice-versa.”
ALSO READ: 25 Saccos automated in pilot phase
They will have better visibility of their accounts and transact online without having to walk distances and be limited by working hours, he added.
"The regulator, the auditors, boards that oversee the transactions of these institutions will be easier to do,” Rwangombwa noted.
Pitchette Kampeta Sayinzoga, CEO of Rwanda Development Bank (BRD), said the automation of U-SACCOs has been long-awaited, especially, because of the opportunity it presents to enhance women’s access to finance based on credit scoring model.
According to her, women are more positioned to access credit at lower interest rates if banks instated a credit scoring model that would disburse capital depending on monitored trends across credit management and credit payment behaviour.
"We were waiting for the SACCOs to have an automated system because we cannot do a proper credit scoring model on a manual banking system. We’ve been anxiously waiting for this automation to roll out our product that is based on automated credit scoring, in early 2025.”
Significance of SACCO’s consolidation
Another project that enrolled alongside the automation is the consolidation of Umurenge SACCOs aimed at creating a cooperative bank which commenced in 2020 with a budget of over Rwf7.8 billion.
Rwangombwa said: "It will be easy now to consolidate the SACCOs into a bigger financial institution at the district level to give a muscle to these financial institutions and assure business sustainability, and also bring together resources that can easily be deployed to rural development.”
The SACCOs will be consolidated from the sector level to the district level providing a bigger opportunity to have more skilled staff and leaders that can handle the ramping mismanagement issues among others.
"We acknowledge the contribution of SACCOs in elevating the livelihoods of people in rural areas, as they continue to grow, the people currently in leadership positions are less competent in advanced financial literacy, and some lack ethics,” explained the governor.
The Ministry of Finance allocated more than Rwf2 billion to the completion of the automation scheme in the fiscal year 2023/24.