The intervention comes at a time when most health facilities in the Lower Shire are in dire need of essential medical equipment and drugs to effectively render services to sick people.

The hand-over ceremony which took place at the hospital’s premises included; Blood pressure machines, weighing scales as well as utility gloves.

According to SUCOMA Sacco Board Chairman, Muleso Wakwana, the donation aims at assisting the facility cover some gaps that lacked medical supplies.

“Within the locality there isn’t any big hospital apart from this. We are part of this hospital and it is our desire to ensure the facility gets what it requires because people rely on it

“The hospital lacks medical supplies including medicine in general and as SUCOMA Sacco we just responded to the call when we heard of these problems.As a financial institution, we have a corporate social responsibility to the communities we are surrounded with because the problem faced here at the facility affects us as well,” said Wakwana.

He added that their support to the hospital is not a once off activity saying they previously provided the facility with a toilet.

“Helping does not mean you have enough but any small contribution can go a long way in saving one’s life,” he added.

On his part while thanking SUCOMA, Medical Director at the hospital Dr Patrick Phiri hinted on the need for more support from well wishers.

He said the hospital is facing numerous challenges concerning medical equipment and drugs and any help will be appreciated.

“I thank SUCOMA for the support rendered now, before and in the near future. I would also like to ask other well wishers to help us out in the situation we are in now.

“The problems we have here  need immediate attention as you are aware the facility is under the Christian Health Association of Malawi (CHAM), so it is more like we operate as a nonprofit making institution and hence need more support,” stated Phiri.

St Montfort Hospital in Chikwawa, serves a population of about 70, 000 people.

The Sacco’s general manager Joseph Mayenda said they refurbished the branch after realising that customers lacked enough space to carry out their transactions.

“We thought it wise that we should provide our members with adequate space and relevant good banking environment so that they should transact in an environment that is friendly and very conducive,” he said.

Mayenda further said as part of efforts to ensure easy access of cash to their members, the Sacco has also embraced use of information technology in its service provision.

“We have developed other products like Umodzi Savings for the women and School Fees Savings account for Children. Our members can now access all the banking services,” he said.

Speaking in an interview, Illovo area manager Temweka Nyangulu commended the Sacco for the new branch, saying members were walking a long distance to do their transactions.

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Currently, Sucoma, with the membership of 4,600, is the second largest Sacco in the country after United Civil Servants Sacco, formerly Mzimba Sacco which has over 12,000 members and an asset base of K1.3 billion.

Musco Board President Fletcher Mhango said although Sucoma has made good progress in a number of areas including growing its loan book, asset base and profitability for the year ended December 31, 2016, there is still need to boost membership.

Mhango was speaking during the sacco’s 22nd Annual General Meeting which was held at Nchalo in Chikwawa district where the union announced that it had posted a profit of K119 million from K98 million in 2015.

“Your membership is slightly low and you have to seriously consider wooing more people to join because the Sacco system works better with large numbers.

The higher the number of members, the more profits you can make. The more savings you can mobilise, then the more the loan portfolio can grow. Once this is achieved, it can double profitability, loan book and shares, among others,” he said.

Sucoma Board Sacco President Wuleso Wakwana said the union has already put in place a plan to mobilise 500 new members.

“Sucoma Sacco for the past 20 years has been number one before United Civil Servants overtook us. But we want to change this by the end of 2017. We will make sure that assets go above K1 billion and that we become the best Sacco in the country,” Wakwana said.

Guest of Honor at the event Chikwawa District Health Officer Amber Majidu hailed Saccos for improving the livelihoods of people through financial freedom.

“There are three elements of financial freedom and these are savings, investment and insurance. So the Sacco is bringing the culture of saving and then it gives the opportunity to the members to use the savings to invest in businesses and other ventures so that they have money to spend with their families and also acquire assets to improve their livelihoods,” he said.

The sacco has achieved a surplus of K98.2 million (about $142 864) from the previous year’s K80.9 million.

Speaking in an interview after the AGM, Sucoma sacco chairperson Edna Khaiya said they achieved satisfactory growth despite the harsh economic environment.

She said assets for the sacco grew by 32 percent to K179 million (about $260 414) while loan portfolio increased to K148 million (about $215 314), representing a 67 percent jump.

“We plan to mobilise not less than 1 000 new members, including women because we realise that having a bigger membership means more revenue generation; hence, it is difficult to survive in terms of economic hardships,” she said.

In his remarks, Malawi Union of Savings and Credit Cooperatives (Muscco) business development manager Ezeckiel Thindwa hailed the Sacco for being one the fastest growing in Chapter One (Southern Region).

“The performance of this Sacco is generally impressive compared to its previous performance. This is encouraging and an indication that people are embracing Saccos,” he said.