How to Register a SACCO in Kenya: Requirements, Cost and Steps
A SACCO registers with the Commissioner for Cooperative Development, not with BRS. You need at least ten members with a common bond, by-laws and an economic appraisal. Here is the full process, and when SASRA gets involved.
A SACCO is a cooperative society, so it's registered under the Cooperative Societies Act through the Commissioner for Cooperative Development and your county cooperative office. It doesn't go through the Business Registration Service. The process is slower than registering a company, often around two months, because a cooperative officer works with your group before registration.
Requirements for registering a SACCO
- At least ten founding members who share a common bond: the same employer, profession, community or trade (for example matatu operators on one route)
- Proposed names for the society
- Draft by-laws stating the objects, membership rules, share capital and how the SACCO is governed
- An economic appraisal showing the SACCO can sustain itself
- Minutes of the pre-cooperative meeting and interim officials
- Members' details and IDs, and a physical address
- Copies of the documents, usually in sets of four
The steps
- Visit your county or sub-county cooperative office and explain your plan
- Hold a pre-cooperative education meeting with a cooperative officer. Interim officials are chosen here
- Reserve and approve the society's name
- Prepare the by-laws and the economic appraisal
- Submit the application with the registration fee to the Commissioner
- Receive the certificate of registration and open the SACCO's bank account
How much does it cost to register a SACCO in Kenya?
The government fee is modest compared with the work involved. Confirm the current figure at your cooperative office, because published amounts vary. The bigger costs come later: setting up proper bookkeeping, member records, loan tracking and audits. SACCOs that skip this end up like the one whose 12 years of records we had to rebuild.
When SASRA gets involved
A SACCO that takes deposits (savings that members can withdraw, like a bank account) must also be licensed by the SACCO Societies Regulatory Authority (SASRA). Deposit-taking SACCOs face minimum capital requirements, fit-and-proper tests for officials and annual licence renewal. Most new SACCOs start as non-deposit-taking (BOSA only) and apply to SASRA later.
Antony Mungai
Founder, Steff Cloud — building websites, systems and automation for Kenyan businesses from Nakuru.