Women in Kajiado County have been challenged to join cooperative societies so as to empower themselves financially and improve their standards of living.

Kajiado County Executive Committee Member (CECM) for Gender, Co-operatives, Culture, Tourism, and Wildlife, Janet Sereu, noted that cooperative societies play a key role in economic growth as they enable members to pull their resources together for collective and individual development.

Sereu noted that by joining cooperatives, the women will be able to cultivate a savings and investment culture amongst themselves therefore attaining financial independence.

The CECM pointed out that saving was a sure way of liberating women from dependency and called on the women to ensure that they join legally registered groups so as to avoid being conned by rogue individuals.

‘I want to urge women to join cooperatives so as to develop a savings culture that will eventually make them financially independent and improve their living standards,’ she said.

She added that a group has stronger bargaining power than an individual, noting that as groups, the women can easily access funds that target youth and women from the county and national governments.

Sereu further emphasised the need to connect cooperative societies to the international market so as to enable them to have vast markets for their products, such as beadwork.

On long-term and short-term commitments to empower women, she reiterated the need to have innovative policies initiated at the grassroots level to identify, establish, and secure accessible market stalls in trading centres and towns for women to make sales and close business deals.

‘Women are playing a key role in the socio-economic development of societies across Kenya. They are highly engaged in agriculture, small-scale industries, and other primary sectors in rural areas, venturing into savings and credit services,’ she said.

Source: Kenya News Agency