In a statement released through social media and mass media, Stima Sacco announced that it was paying its members dividends following an annual general meeting that was held on 3rd March 2023.
The company noted that due to strong financial performance, they were going to pay dividends and interest rebates at the rate of 15% per paid up share and 11% interest rebate on members’ deposits. The total payout for the two items was estimated at KES 3.56 billion, an increase from KES 2.99 billion declared in 2021.
FAQ: Dividends are returns payable to ownership shares commonly referred to as the share capital you have with the Sacco while Interest Rebates are returns on Alpha Deposits i.e., the deposits used as a multiplier when applying for a loan.
There have been recent concerns that Stima Sacco was not performing well financially. Cyprian is Nyakundi, a social media activist, had raised an alarm that the company was going down due to the high number of people withdrawing money from the company.
In response to such allegations, the company explained that it is experiencing service downtime due to increased traffic of people trying to access their dividends.
“We have since witnessed high traffic on our Channels and Branches, leading to service disturbance that has strained the response time between our M-Pawa Mobile Channel and the core banking system,” Stima Sacco said in a statement released to the media yesterday.
The Sacco continued to state that it is in a sound financial state as demonstrated in their 2022 financial reports, contrary to what social media activists are portraying.
Recent financial reports indicate that Stima Sacco’s Core Capital grew from 7.97 billion in the year 2021 to 9.3 billion in the year 2022. It also has total assets of 53.8 billion and its loan book grew by 12% from 36.8 billion to 41.3 billion in 2022. With a profit of KES 4.17 billion in 2022, Stima Sacco is surely one of the most profitable Saccos in the country.
“We are in full gear with all parties concerned and are putting in every resource to prioritizing the optimization of the system in order to better serve our esteemed members,” Stima Sacco statement further said.
Stima Sacco recently transitioned to a new core banking system before its annual general meeting.