Lokichar, 21st November 2025 (Public Communication and Media Relations)

At least 19 cooperatives in Turkana have benefitted from a three-day training to boost their capacity to support agricultural activities through extending credit and saving services to farmers.

The training, courtesy of the County Government and local banks, forms part of the larger goal to build resilience of farmers to effectively combat food insecurity, spearheaded by Food Systems Resilience Project (FSRP).

The Chief Officer for Agriculture and Land Reclamation, David Maraka described the intervention as boost to financial inclusion of farmers.

“I can confirm that the 57 sacco leaders attending the training have been exposed to risk-based lending, credit rating of farmers, identification of high value crops and farmers on contract production,” Maraka said.

David Naita, the Lead for Financial Inclusion and Creditworthiness of Crop and Livestock Farmers component, emphasized on FSRP’s commitment in working closely with the 19 SACCOs with an aim to build capacity for effective implementation of the developed credit/lending policies.

“I have been empowered on governance, financial management and bookkeeping aspect and I look forward to sharing the skills and knowledge learned on credit and lending policy with the rest of the sacco members,” James Echuchuka, Chairman of Lokori/Kochodin SACCO stated.

The exercise forms part of a broader county and national governments’ commitment to strengthening financial structures that safeguard livelihoods and ensure resilient food systems for the people of Turkana.

At the end of the training, the SACCO leaders developed a draft policy that uniquely addresses the needs of farmers and enables them access credit facility in efforts to boost food security in the County.

Present were Josephine Emase, the FSRP County Community Institutions Development Officer and Deputy Director for Livestock Production in company of other FSRP officials, Wilson Ejie (Deputy Director Trade), Ernest Anzeze (Assistant Director, Livestock Production), Naphtali Maiche (Principal Cooperative Officer), Felix Kiptuli (Principal County Cooperative auditor).

The banks were represented by Mark Gitau (Sales Executive, Co-operative Bank), William Ouma (Digital Literacy Corp, Equity Group Foundation).

The national government representatives included Njoroge Wanjiru (State department of Cooperatives), Ibrahim Gichuki (State department of Cooperatives), Esther Kariuki (State department of Cooperatives).