Higher-earning Kenyans scouting for better returns on savings pushed accounts with more than Sh1 million in savings and credit cooperative societies (Saccos) to grow at the fastest pace in five years to hit 92,000 at the end of last year, defying the economic hardships facing many Kenyans.
The latest Sacco Societies Regulatory Authority (Sasra) disclosures show the accounts jumped by 29.6 percent from about 71,000 in the previous year, being more than double the 39,000 that were holding such amount five years earlier.
The 92,000 accounts—an equivalent of 0.63 percent of the total 14.52 million accounts—were holding Sh163.28 billion or nearly a third (31.2 percent) of the Sh522.59 billion deposits held by 359 Saccos regulated by Sasra.
“This analysis is thus a testament to the fact that the number of deposit accounts holding more than Sh1 million grew at a faster rate of 29 percent in 2022 than all other categories of deposit accounts while the growth rate in the amount of deposits held in the deposit accounts with more than Sh1 million recorded the highest increase by 20.72 percent,” said Sasra.
The jump in the top savings from Sh135.26 billion was despite the economic challenges that had seen the number of dormant members in deposit-taking (DT) and non-withdrawable deposit-taking (NWDT) Saccos jump from 1.18 million to 1.22 million.
Sasra defines dormant members as those who had not made any financial transactions with their respective Saccos for six and 12 months period for DT-Saccos and NWDT-Saccos, respectively before the end of last year.
