Rural Financial Inclusion

Improving Rural Financial Inclusion Through Cooperatives-IRFITCO

IRFITCO (Improving Rural Financial Inclusion Through Cooperatives) is a project funded by IFAD and being implemented by ACCOSCA jointly with Canadian Co-operative Development Foundation (CDF-The Lead Agency) and Irish league of Credit Union Foundation (ILCUF). ACCOSCA is managing the 4-year project aspects that relate to Tanzania while CDF and ILCUF are managing project aspects that relate to Malawi and Ethiopia respectively. The project aim is to improve sustainable rural financial inclusion through financial cooperative system.

The Three Components

Building the technical capacity of financial co-operatives and their network organization.
Introducing innovation to financial co-operatives and their network organization.
Knowledge management and policy dialogue.

Implementation of this project began in the year 2017 and a number of key milestones have been achieved in line with project components as follows:

Revival of the Tanzania’s National SACCO Apex

Savings and Credit Co-Operative Union of Tanzania (SCCULT) has been revived with the project support and is in full operation. The following key aspects are in place:

Board of management.
Apex staff.
Annual General Meeting taking place.
Strategic plan for the Apex.
Quarterly board meeting.

Capacity Building

Numerous trainings have been conducted to build capacity of SCCULT board members, staff, SACCO leaders, SACCO managers and TCDC staff. Areas of training include: Good Governance and Leadership, Product Development, -Regulation and Supervision, Performance Management, Board Orientation and Code of Ethics and Strategic Plan Development. These trainings are done through the project organized workshops and ACCOSCA forums (Annual SACCA congress, Annual regional forums, Regulatory Round Table and DE course).

Knowledge Management and Sharing.

As part of the project objectives, pertinent policy documentation has been developed as well as exposure visits to enhance knowledge management and sharing. These Include Technical note on regulation, Inspection manual for SACCOs, Risk management policy,-Code of conduct for board members, Board charter, Standard by-laws for Apex and Financial Literacy technical note. The planned exposures led to visits to Ghana, Gambia, Kenya and Nigeria by registrar of cooperatives and SCCULT board members to learn more about the operations of SACCO National Apex in those countries.