Cooperatives are one of the pillars supporting Kenya’s economic growth. The following figures show the significant involvement of cooperatives in Kenya’s economy:
- The turnover of the cooperative sector of Kshs 30 billion
- 63% of Kenyans derive their livelihoods directly/indirectly from cooperative based activities
- 250.000 people are directly employed by cooperative based institutions
- 38% of agriculture-based cooperative societies were dealing with coffee, dairy, pyrethrum and cereals in December 2006
As an integral part of the Government strategy of wealth creation and poverty reduction, cooperatives activity cut across all the sectors of the national economy that include agriculture, finance, housing, transport, building and construction, manufacturing and distribution trade. Cooperative activities concern mainly the financial sector (44%) and the agricultural sector (38%).
The cooperative movement is well structured with more than 11.000 registered Cooperative Societies in 2007. Cooperatives gather at least 7 million members in Kenya.
On the ground, however, there is often a lack of skilled workforce, management capacities and other damaging challenges such as poor governance. There is high youth unemployment, and rapid population growth of over 2.5 per cent (2017 figures) is making it hard to combat poverty.
