At least 100 Umurenge Saccos (village savings cooperatives) have already registered with the National Bank of Rwanda (BNR), as part of a government strategy to promote the culture of savings through Rwanda Cooperatives Agency (RCA),

This was revealed by the RCA Director General, Damien Mugabo, who said that these cooperatives would render better services to their members if they operated as financial institutions.

"We have already approved 100 Umurenge Saccos that fulfilled the requirements,” Mugabo said.

He, however, said that the number is still small given that RCA has received applications from over 300 cooperatives while in total they expect to have 416, representing all Sectors in the country.

Mugabo pledged that all will be done to ensure that the launch of the cooperatives only when they are ready and warned people who embezzle Sacco funds. 

"Any person who even misuses a coin will account for it,” Mugabo said.

"We have employed an auditing system to ensure that in case members are not satisfied with the cooperative’s work, we get a feedback. That is why we have managed to track down some of these culprits whose cases have been forwarded for prosecution”.

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