At least 143 managers of the Umurenge Sacco community-based saving cooperatives, on Tuesday completed training on the use of software that enable them connect to the Umwalimu Sacco server. Umwarimu Sacco is a teachers’ saving and credit cooperative. Organised by the teachers’ coop, the training was conducted in Nyamata, Bugesera District. The training aims at empowering the managers to operate the software that will take the services of the teachers’ coop down to the sector level. Umurenge Sacco is a government initiative established in 2009 to strengthen the financial sector through enabling the general population to have easy access to financial services. “We do not want teachers to move long distances from their areas of operation to access their monthly pay in Umwalimu Saccos which are still few because we only have one branch in each district,” said Joseph Museruka, the General Manager, Umwalimu Sacco. Museruka told journalists that the software will enable Umurenge Saccos to access teachers’ accounts; making it possible for teachers to access services in their respective sectors. “We shall be able to monitor from our district branches as well as main branch; but also our members will be alerted in case of any transaction carried out on their accounts. This will be through receiving a notification message on their mobile phones,” he said. The general objective, he said, is to ensure that all the 416 Umurenge Saccos are linked to their central server. Currently, 300 are connected to the server; but officials said the remaining will soon be connected soon. The connected Umurenge Saccos have been given modems and free internet subscription by Umwalimu Sacco as the basic necessities to carry out the expected task.
