Thyolo Teachers Sacco posts 60% surplus

Thyolo Teachers’ Savings and Credit Cooperative Society (Sacco) has posted a K16 million surplus in 2016—up from K10 million posted the previous year—representing a 60 percent increment.

Speaking on Saturday during the Sacco’s annual general meeting (AGM) in Luchenza, Thyolo, chairperson Harlod Namakhwa said this had been attained despite the challenging economic environment.

“The year 2016 was difficult economically. This was due to hunger which Malawians were going through due to poor harvest. Despite this famine, we tried to work hard so that our Sacco should be sailing in the right track,” said Namakhwa.

He also said the Sacco has seen a 68 percent increase in assets—from K261 million to K439 million—while membership grew by 27 percent—from 4 768 in 2015 to 6 073 in 2016—making it the largest Sacco by membership in the Southern Region.

In his remarks, Malawi Union of Savings and Credit Cooperatives Limited (Muscco) cooperatives development manager Ezekiel Thindwa urged the organisation to manage its growth.

“The growth itself has to be managed in the sense that as they are expanding, we don’t want to lose members. They also have to ensure that they move with technology by computerisng their operations because technology has more advantages than the manual system of doing things,” he said.

Thyolo Teachers Sacco has branches in Thyolo, Mulanje, Zomba, Phalombe, Liwonde and Chichiri in Blantyre. n