CAK launches the Co-opTech platform, a financial technology company

6 March, 2023

In response to a rise in fraud, the Co-operative Alliance of Kenya (CAK) has set up a technology platform worth Sh800 million to protect people's money in savings and credit cooperative organizations (Sacco).

Via a common platform used by all saccos in their everyday operations, the Co-opTech platform, a financial technology firm owned by the cooperative lobby, would manage the security of depositors' funds.

Simon Chelugui, the cooperative cabinet secretary, who announced the platform's launch on Thursday, said it had been planned for a long time and that its development was long overdue.

According to Mr. Chelugui, the mechanism will guarantee the protection of depositors' money in saccos and reassure them of the security of their money in accounts.

The ability to manage resources, increase productivity, and develop goods and solutions that meet their demands, he claimed, is one of the key ways that technology is helping to bring about change across all industries.

By purchasing shares, Saccos will be the platform's owner. A one-time payment of up to Sh10 million would be made by the big boys, while the small SACCOs would pay between Sh350,000 and Sh500,000.

Saccos spend up to Sh1.5 billion annually on various service providers who give them a technology platform to safeguard members savings, according to Daniel Marube, CEO of CAK.

According to Mr. Marube, the new platform will help save money that the Saccos may utilize to offer loans to their members at competitive interest rates.

The goal of the new technology is to make fundamental banking services accessible to cooperative organizations that have struggled to generate the significant budget required to buy and operate flexible transaction systems that prevent fraud.

According to him, "the common transaction platform would improve reliability and cyber security and make services affordable, similar to those in the banking sector."

A unified money management system that facilitates inter-sacco lending is integrated into the platform.