Kimisitu Sacco members have approved the sectional purchase of a Sh150 million office space for its headquarters in Nairobi.

The 7,342 members unanimously agreed that buying the space was cheaper than leasing at Sh9 million a year when they vacate the current premises, to pave the way for construction of a five-floor headquarters along Nairobi’s Woodlands Avenue at a cost of Sh443 million.

The planned Kimisitu Plaza development was deferred to a later date.

Chairman Philip Oyuko welcomed the development, saying the sacco needs more space to accommodate a planned Front Office Savings Activity (Fosa) that will be put up at a cost of Sh24 million.

“Fosa will enable our sacco expand its products and services thereby generating more revenue. This will also place the sacco under Savings and Credit Societies Regulatory Authority(Sasra),” he said.

Mr Oyuko said the society’s turnover for the year ending December 2018 rose to Sh705 million or 13 percent from Sh623.4 million in 2017. The deposits rose by 14 percent to stand at Sh4.7 billion from the previous year’s Sh4.1 billion.

Last year saw it loan out Sh4.8 billion, up 11 percent compared to the previous year’s Sh4.3 billion.

Mr Oyuko said Kimisitu has invested Sh56.5 million in acquisition of a server and software that will enable them to run a paperless operation on installation.

It was started in 1985 by staff of International Council for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF)and has members from international organisations, non-governmental organisationS, foreign missions and embassies.

Kimisitu Sacco’s assets rose by 16.5 percent from Sh5.15 billion (2017) to Sh6.05 billion reported in the past year.

The sacco declared a 20 percent dividend on members share capital worth Sh42.6 million and a further 11 percent being interest on member deposits.

By Fred Azelwa.