NACCUG’s prime concern is to build the financial strength

The Programme Manager National Association of Cooperative Credit Unions (NACCUG) has said the prime concern of the credit union is to build the financial strength, with adequate reserves and internal controls that will ensure continued service to member.

Credit union services are directed to improve the economic and social well-being of all members by actively promoting their education and that of the public in the economic, social, democratic and mutual self-help principles of credit unions, Mr. Hamey B. Jawara said.

Mr. Jawara was presenting a paper on “setting up a cooperative credit union for the Insurance Association of The Gambia (IAG)” during a lecture at the Laico Atlantic Hotel in Banjul. 

NACCUG, which was formed and legally registered in 1991 as the apex body for credit unions in The Gambia, has a mandate to promote and support the development of co-operative credit unions across the country.

This, he said is a movement that provides the best and most cost effective and efficient financial and non financial services. “Credit unions mobilize savings and dispense credit on set rules and standards. Members support each other and in the process retains a common bond,” he said.

He stressed that decisions should be taken with full regard for the interest of the broader community within which the credit union and its members reside. Governance is the system designed to control and distributes power within an organization and the International Credit Union Governance Principles are ideals to be achieved and are intended to apply to credit unions.

According to him, these principles address the challenges of organizational power within credit union’s compliance with issues related to external and internal governance. In order to achieve this goal, each board member has a duty to adhere to the principles of individual governance, he said.

He said each member holds a minimum of two shares varying from credit union to credit union with a minimum value of D25 per share and each share is eligible for a dividend at the end of the financial year from the credit union’s accumulated surplus.

The amount appropriated from surplus after appropriation of all necessary reserves, savings are used to make loans to members and the interest received from these loans and any investments are used. Source - The Voice