Cooperatives and Enterprise Development Chief Officer Ruth Samoei on Tuesday affirmed her docket’s role of ensuring that cooperative societies access funds to enable them to boost their endeavours that would ultimately see them grow economically.

speaking during the induction of Cooperatives Enterprise Development Fund(CEDF) committee members, Samoei said CEDF is a strong sector that is mandated to facilitate Co-ops to achieve their set goals.

“It is high time we dominate the horticulture market, especially vegetables by ensuring that those who are in that sector are advised to form or join existing cooperative societies so that they can benefit from these funds,” said Samoei.

The CO further said that the fund should be made to dwell well with the rural sector cooperatives noting that they are economic drivers of the grassroots.

His counterpart for Finance Eliud Chemaget appreciated the committee for the positive trajectory that has seen the fund grow its allocation from sh 20m to sh 700m.

Director Finance Silas Rono said there is a need for the committee members to confort themselves with the emerging trends especially on disbursements to improve the fund’s operations, sentiments that were echoed by the Fund’s chair Philip Mamet.

During the meeting, the committee amended the CEDF Credit Policy Development 2023 that has been on use in administering the fund from the previous years to suit current dynamics.

This was to achieve the vision of the fund to provide low-interest loans to cooperative institutions in Uasin Gishu that seek to promote the welfare and economic uplifting of the people.

“There was a need for the development of a Credit Policy to enable the sector to perform it’s duties effectively and efficiently” noted Lagat

The CEDF committee is mandated to manage the fund, approve loans, policy development, budget making, and creation of work plans among others.