Kenya’s regulated SACCO sector in numbers: SASRA’s 2024 supervision report
355 regulated SACCOs, KES 1.076 trillion in assets, 7.39 million members, an 8.39% NPL ratio and 69% on USSD — the figures SASRA printed for 2024, with page references, including where the report contradicts itself.
The report behind these numbers
SASRA publishes an annual statutory report on regulated SACCOs under section 22 of the Sacco Societies Act and regulation 92 of the Non-Deposit-Taking Business Regulations, 2020. "The SACCO Supervision Annual Report, 2024" covers the calendar year to 31 December 2024 and draws on audited statements approved by 30 April 2025. Page numbers below are the report's own. Where the report prints two different figures for the same item, both are shown.
The regulated population
- 355 regulated SACCOs operated in 2024: 177 deposit-taking (DT) SACCOs licensed under the 2010 Regulations and 178 non-withdrawable deposit-taking (NWDT) SACCOs authorised under the 2020 Regulations (p. 30). Two NWDT authorisations were revoked for failure to renew (Table 7, p. 36).
- Of the NWDT SACCOs, 174 are authorised because non-withdrawable deposits reached KES 100 million, three for diaspora or digital share subscription, and one for digital share subscription alone (Table 8, pp. 36–37).
- The wider universe is much larger: 30,726 registered cooperatives, of which 14,484 are SACCOs; those below the KES 100 million deposit line sit outside SASRA (Table 4, p. 28).
- By size, 60 SACCOs hold assets above KES 5 billion, 79 between KES 1 and 5 billion, and 216 below KES 1 billion (Table 13, p. 52).
- By field of membership: 116 government-based, 105 private-sector, 86 community-based and 48 agriculture-based (Table 11, pp. 43–44).
- Head offices cluster in Nairobi City (174), Kiambu (30), Meru (16) and Mombasa (16); Garissa, Mandera and Turkana have no regulated SACCO presence (Table 42, pp. 126–127). Branches rose to 652 (p. 21).
Balance sheet and growth
| Indicator (KES billion) | 2023 | 2024 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total assets | 971.96 | 1,076.15 | +10.72% |
| Total deposits | 682.19 | 749.43 | +9.86% |
| Gross loans | 758.57 | 845.11 | +11.41% |
| Net loans | 706.21 | 789.42 | +11.78% |
| Capital reserves and retained earnings | 168.05 | 197.77 | +17.68% |
Source: Table 12, p. 45. The foreword and Figure 17 print capital reserves as KES 197.54 billion (+17.55%); Table 12 prints 197.77.
Regulated SACCO assets crossed KES 1 trillion for the first time, from KES 301.54 billion in 2014 (pp. 10, 16), and equal 6.63% of nominal GDP (Table 6, p. 31). DT SACCOs hold 87.80% of assets; NWDT SACCOs 12.20%, down from 14.31%, which the report attributes to conversions and revocations rather than shrinkage (pp. 48–49). NWDT assets fell 5.59% to KES 131.29 billion (Table 12, p. 45).
Membership grew 7.94% to 7,385,423, of whom 5,719,530 are active and 1,665,893 (22.56%) dormant (Table 9, p. 38). Deposits are 83.08% non-withdrawable (BOSA), 13.33% withdrawable (FOSA) and 3.60% fixed (Table 17, p. 63). Loan disbursements reached KES 542.75 billion, led by land and housing (25.26%), education (22.02%) and agriculture (20.05%) (Table 21, pp. 69–70).
Prudential position
- DT SACCOs in aggregate: core capital to assets 17.28% against a 10% minimum; institutional capital to assets 11.97% against 8%; liquidity 61.34% against 15%; loans to deposits 114.64% (Table 22, p. 72). Institution by institution, 172 of 177 meet the core-capital-to-assets floor and 143 meet the institutional-capital floor; 12 are below 4% on strict conditional licences (pp. 75–76).
- NWDT SACCOs in aggregate: core capital to assets 10.87% against 8%; retained earnings to core capital 66.89% against 50%; liquidity 144.65% against 10% (Table 23, p. 73). 42 NWDT SACCOs are below the 8% core capital floor and barred from paying dividends until they comply (pp. 77–78).
- Non-performing loans: KES 70.87 billion, an industry ratio of 8.39% (DT 8.56%, NWDT 7.07%), against 17.10% for commercial banks and 33.60% for microfinance banks (Table 5, p. 30; Table 27, p. 85). Agriculture- based DT SACCOs carry 18.69%; private-sector DT SACCOs 5.73% (Figure 51, pp. 88–89). 68 DT and 44 NWDT SACCOs have ratios above 10% (Figure 50, pp. 87–88).
- Average dividend on shares fell to 10.46% and interest on deposits to 7.14%, the first dividend decline in three years (Figure 7, p. 32).
Concentration
Sixty large SACCOs hold 77.07% of assets; the other 295 share 22.93% (Table 13, p. 52). Government-based SACCOs hold 64.49% of assets, and teachers' SACCOs alone 29.58% (Table 14, p. 55; Figure 29, p. 57). Just 0.87% of deposit accounts, those above KES 1 million, hold 37.53% of deposits; 89.09% of accounts hold under KES 50,000 (Table 19, pp. 65–66). The three largest DT SACCOs by assets are Mwalimu National (KES 68.89 billion), Stima (66.51) and Kenya National Police (59.83) (Appendix III, p. 166). The largest NWDT SACCOs are United Women (6.94), Kenya Medical Association (6.78), Co-operative Bank (6.11) and Balozi (6.02) (Appendix IV, p. 170).
Digital channels and technology
- 245 SACCOs (69.01%) offer mobile money through USSD: 93.22% of DT SACCOs and 44.94% of NWDT SACCOs (Figure 76, pp. 116–117).
- 171 SACCOs (48.17%) offer an internet or app channel, up from 39.22%; the report adds that SACCOs "are forewarned of the cyber risks" (Figure 77, p. 117).
- 40 DT SACCOs run 4,247 agents handling 7.69 million transactions worth KES 31.65 billion (Table 39, pp. 120–122); only 798 accounts were opened through agents.
- 236 SACCOs offer 345 digital loan products, mostly under KES 50,000 and repayable in about two months (Table 40, p. 123).
- 267 SACCOs (75.21%) report to credit reference bureaus, negative data only (Table 41, pp. 123–124).
- Members still use branches: 59.9% of SACCO users visit a branch, 26.1% use an app, 23.8% USSD and 19.8% a paybill; urban users prefer mobile (85.9%), rural users and over-55s prefer branches (FinAccess 2024 as cited, pp. 142–143).
- SACCOs have no direct access to national payment and settlement infrastructure; ATM, cheque and Pesalink services reach them through banks, chiefly Co-operative Bank (pp. 118–120, 144).
Conduct and enforcement
Employer non-remittance of deductions reached KES 3.49 billion across 85 SACCOs and 55,602 members, 46.07% of it owed by county governments and assemblies (pp. 13, 110–115; the body text says 55,603 members). SASRA's fraud unit handled 29 matters in 2024 (Table 46, pp. 132–133). 334 SACCOs (94%) were registered with the Financial Reporting Centre, up from 59.38% (Table 51, pp. 137–138; the body text on p. 137 says 320). SASRA carried out 48 on-site inspections against a policy target of about 115 a year (p. 126).
What the report says is changing
The report describes, as of its writing, the Cooperative Bill, 2024 passed by the National Assembly on 3 December 2024 and sent to the Senate, which it says would repeal the Co-operative Societies Act, raise the minimum founders of a primary cooperative from 10 to 20 and convert supervisory committees into supervisory boards (pp. 11, 149–153). It records SASRA's AML/CTF/CPF guideline of 24 June 2024 (Table 47, p. 133) and its intention to keep deducting investments in unregulated instruments from regulatory capital (p. 12). These are the report's statements about the period, not statements of current law; check the Senate record and SASRA's circulars for what has since changed.