{Rwanda counts about 81 643 members of Mwalimu SACCO, a credit and Saving cooperative made of teachers in the public and private schools. Mwalimu SACCO was created as a means of enhancing Teachers’ economic capacity}
In an Interview with IGIHE, the Director General of Mwalimu SACCO, Joseph Museruka, revealed that “The idea of setting up a savings and credit cooperative of teachers is an idea of His Excellency Paul Kagame. He came up with this idea in 2006 and become a reality in 2009,”
He says that Rwandan teachers have their own bank with easy procedures of lending and significantly with lower interest rate of 11% than other commercial banks whose interest rate ranges between 17to 18 %.
“Since I became the Head of Mwalimu SACCO in April 2010, I upgraded all systems with computerization of all records of bank so that the monitoring of financial movement is quickly detected, no cheating could go without being noticed, “Reassures Joseph Museruka while addressing this site
He explains that when he came in the office, there was a deficit of Rwf 456 million, but at the end of this year, the deficit had been filled with the realization of a profit of Rwf 64 million.
Current investments of Mwalimu SACCO stand at Rwf 11 billion and loans that were distributed to members stand at Rwf 56 billion up to date.
On the side of organization and structures, “We are present in all towns and district and our services are computerized. Moreover we are working together with about 294 Umurenge SACCOs countrywide to make easy and accessible banking services to our members. Umurenge SACCOs are fully connected to the Internet by our expense. We provided them with a modem and a network, “says Museruka showing that he follows all financial movements across the country sitting in the office based in Kigali.
{{Mwalimu SACCOs impact on the lives of teachers;}} this is the reason why many teachers express their satisfaction with this structure of microfinance and especially to competitive interest rates.
The Board of Directors has decided that the teacher working in the public sector is taxed 11% interest and 14% for teachers in the private sector.
“Our salaries are so low, it is absolute difficult for us to have consistent credit because they are given to us in relation to salary volume,” one of the teachers told IGIHE
The Director General of Mwalimu SACCO has two goals namely economic health of Mwalimu SACCO and a significant impact on members: “We are committed to ensure that every teacher is funded for his/her individual or family project which generates income and the interest rate may not exceed 11%.”
“Mwalimu SACCO will unlock significant funds of around Rwf 100 million for projects – cooperatives that will be designed by the teachers of each school center. We also want to support teachers so that their homes are lit by solar energy where they are not connected to hydropower. Finally, they will receive laptops as credit, “said Museruka showing adding that he cares about the financial side of the teachers.
{{Mwalimu SACCO and RRA tax}}
Mwalimu SACCO continues to be assisted by the government that unlocks amounts of money so that it can cope with the demand of the teachers.
“If Rwanda Revenue Authority continues to acquit us taxes, we believe we will start distributing heifers at each teacher family.” Museruka added that they have also started to finance agriculture projects among teachers, “Yet where this was done, we saw teachers become financially stable. We saw a very active teacher who has a barn in Gisozi sector in Kigali.
When IGIHE visited him, he revealed that he “started this project with a credit of Mwalimu SACCO. It is fully paid and I continued the project as opportunity.”
“In every administrative unit of the country, we can find 10 homes of teachers for fully funded by Mwalimu Sacco. Other well studied teachers’ projects are fundable. Here, we do not look at the volume of the teacher salary “said Museruka showing that generally teachers’ cooperatives are safer for this type of loan where Mwalimu sacco unlocks amounts close to 30 million francs.
{{ Impact assessment}}
The Director General of Mwalimu Sacco intends to initiate independent research to assess the impact that Mwalimu Sacco has had on the lives of the teacher and what are the expectations and aspirations of the Rwandan teachers in regard to their microfinance.
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