Asian credit unions body to adopt SANASA model for expansion

By Charumini de Silva

The Association of Asian Confederation of Credit Unions (ACCU) President Dr. Chul-sang Moon yesterday said his organisation expected to adopt Sri Lanka’s SANASA credit society model as a leading example to expand its credit union movement to uplift the livelihood of people in the region.

Noting that Sri Lanka in particular has a very strong credit union movement, he stressed that the financial literacy of the public was a great competitive advantage for the development of SANASA societies and for the growth of the economy.

“Finance education is one of the key advantages Sri Lanka has and the SANASA Federation has their own university here. Secondly, SANASA society members have monthly meetings, which are very important for education, sharing information. This enhances their financial literacy further,” he told journalists in Colombo on the sidelines of the ACCU Forum 2017.

The SANASA Federation of Sri Lanka is hosting the Asian Credit Union Forum 2017 from today to 21 September at the Galadari Hotel, Colombo on the theme ‘Building Together to Create Value for People and Communities’. More than 400 delegates from 32 countries along with ACCU management team will gather to share insights and find solutions to pressing issues that hinder the development of credit unions in the region. 

Despite many credit union movements initially conducting monthly meetings, these are not practiced in some of the movements and in that respect Dr. Moon believes that SANASA societies are providing an example for the credit unions of the world by practising the core values in today’s context as well. 

“The reason why we believe education is the foremost value of the credit union movement is because to keep trust and believe in each other. Through education we are trying to make a better livelihood for our members,” he added.

In this respect the ACCU feels that the Sri Lankan credit union movement is performing well in terms of the financial education of its members. 

ACCU CEO Elenita V. San Roque asserted that at this year’s forum they are leveraging on managing the growth and sustainability of every credit union movement in the region.

“We want to become more integrated by sharing resources, standardising our operations to ensure that all credit union movement is properly governed,” she pointed out.

Acknowledging that SANASA societies have created a strong brand covering all parts of the country, Roque said that the ACCU was keen on learning that from Sri Lanka. “Wherever you go in Sri Lanka, SANASA societies have a strong brand presence and it is because they are using the same logo throughout the country. We want to learn from SANASA about how they created that branding because in other countries they have different logos, which creates a wall on integration. We want our members to learn from that. This is the most important factor we want to learn from Sri Lanka.”

Emphasising that the ACCU was now taking a lead in using technology and digitising financial services, she said: “We have recognised that when we operate at a village level, we also have to modernise our services using technology so that communities will be able to use technology in accessing financial services.”

It was pointed out that the ACCU represents 45 million individual members from over 35,000 credit unions in 22 countries in Asia. The ACCU works in partnership with its member organisations to promote and strengthen credit unions as vehicles of community development and the socioeconomic development of people.

SANASA Federation Ltd. Chairman P.A. Kiriwandeniya said its dynamic and diversified model was the key reason for it to be considered as a leading example for the other countries.

He said it has 8,300 primary societies dealing in microfinance in territories designated from rural conclaves to the townships throughout the country inclusive of predominantly populated areas with Tamil-speaking people in the north and east of the country.

Growing from four-digit figures over hundreds of years ago, with the resurgence of the movement that originated in 1978 under the guidance of a charismatic leadership, today the SANASA Federation holds a membership of 20% of the country’s total population as direct and indirect membership of family units, making the SANASA family and community a formidable social community from the grassroots level membership spread into the most remote villages comprising farmers, field workers, teachers and town workers and other marginalised communities who are considered just ordinary folk in the country’s social strata.

The primary societies serving a membership population in designated areas are also referred to as a Primary SANASA Society in the village. The federation referred heretofore represents the largest people oriented service organisation based on a cooperative philosophy. Thus Sinhala, the language spoken by the majority, uses a concise wording for savings and credit, SANASA, which was the name given to this people’s movement and hence the federation is also referred to as the SANASA Federation, and the people’s movement that it stands for is referred to as the ‘SANASA Movement’.

-Pix by Indraratne Balasuriya