In one of our previous articles, we highlighted the factors to consider before joining a sacco in Kenya.

Regardless of the due diligence undertaken through such a process, there comes a time when withdrawal from membership is inevitable whereby such a decision may be triggered by a variety of factors based on personal decisions or external elements beyond one’s control.

Reasons for withdrawal from sacco

1. Change of employment

As is common practice, most employers have set up internal saccos whose membership consists entirely of its employees. As such, its members usually have the convenience of common bond especially in regards to guarantorship.

Another beneficial aspect of internal saccos is the minimization of loan default since salary deductions are efficiently enforced through the check-off system.

However, when an employee ceases to feature in a company’s payroll, it may prove difficult for an employee to continue with its sacco membership and may be obliged to withdraw.

Nonetheless, there are options to proceed with membership as an outsider/ex-employee but it may ultimately lose the significance of common bond initially experienced as colleagues.

2. Exodus from country

This may be due to change of citizenship or the securing of employment abroad. Either way, sacco membership may be difficult to maintain considering the requirements of monthly contributions or attendance of annual general membership meetings.

However, there are some saccos that allow diaspora membership under specific guidelines.

3. Poor services

This can be a major contributor especially when a member is dissatisfied with the services being offered at a particular sacco.

Poor services can range from the lack of infrastructure limiting the proper functioning of even the most basic processes such as deposits/withdrawals.

Others may include incompetent customer support, delays, frequent system downtime etc.

4. Sacco transfer

Another valid reason that may trigger withdrawal from a sacco is transfer to another sacco. This may be brought about as a result of any of the aforementioned factors including change of employment or poor services.

Furthermore, holding membership  of two or more saccos may be considered conflict of interest hence the need to withdraw from one.

5. Financial distress

Owing to the requirement of monthly contributions synonyms with all saccos in Kenya, it may be difficult to maintain membership when one is not financially stable brought about by various factors including job los, debt etc

6. Lack of suitable products

With the over 300+ licensed saccos in Kenya offering a variety of products and services, one may be obliged to withdraw from one and seek membership to another largely due to preferential choices over certain services or products.

How To withdraw membership from a sacco

Generally, the process of withdrawing from a sacco in Kenya is similar across all the saccos except for minor differences in document contents.

The process of withdrawing membership from sacco is simple as highlighted below.

• Issue a written notice within 60-90 days stating your intent to withdraw from the sacco.
• Fill in the sacco membership withdrawal form that requires the provision of membership details such as; full names, member number, ID/Passport number, phone number, email address, bank account name,number & branch (optional)
• Clear any outstanding loan balances and also follow up on guaranteed loans to ensure that have been cleared or guarantorship has been substituted so as to prevent deposits being withheld by the sacco.
• In case of any money owed by the sacco, it shall be refunded within thirty days.

Can one withdraw shares from sacco?

Absolutely not! sacco shares are not withdrawable but are transferable to a willing buyer. Sacco deposits on the other hand are withdrawable after ninety days.

Categories: General