Seychelles Credit Union (SCU) 47th Annual General Meeting |21 August 2017
SCU exceeds financial expectations
The AGM in full swing
The Seychelles Credit Union has surpassed expectations in its financial position as at December 31, 2016, recording R306.128 million in total assets and R290.024 million in total capital.
It also recorded a total net income for the year 2016 of R21.738 million, an increase of R2.616 million (13.7%) over the R19.122 million in the previous year. Non-interest expenses also recorded an increase of R1.253 million (7.9%) to reach R17.142 million by the end of 2016 compared to R15.889 million in 2015.
During the same year, the Seychelles Credit Union (SCU) membership saw a net increase of 775 members to reach 14,889 members from 14,114 recorded at the end of December 2015.
As part of its plans to diversify its products, the bank is also looking into the introduction of an ATM service and has already got the approval of the Central Bank of Seychelles (CBS). Tests are still being done as risks, which is a major issue, are being thoroughly addressed before the project’s implementation.
These announcements were revealed to members of the cooperative bank from Mahé, Praslin and La Digue during the SCU’s 47th annual general meeting held at the Seychelles Trading Company’s (STC) conference hall.
During the meeting members heard the executive summary, directors’ report and audited financial statements for the year ending December 31, 2016 and resolutions.
Hosts of the meeting were board members of the cooperative bank with Selby Dora as chairperson. Also present were the supervisory committee members, credit committee members, external auditors of the bank and its members.
The meeting started off with the chairman giving a detailed briefing of what have been achieved since the last meeting, what are still being implemented and what cannot.
As the only community-based savings and credit society in Seychelles, the SCU has the mission of promoting thrift among its members to enable it to provide quality and fairly priced financial services to the community through putting people before profits and deliver financial services that not only meet but surpass members’ expectations.
The Mahé branch still accounts for over 90% of SCU’s performance. The La Digue branch outperformed the Praslin one during 2016, taking in more interest income and managing its expenses, while Praslin performed at a loss for almost half of 2016. But with some changes in its operation and cost reduction strategies, the Praslin branch managed to perform well during the second half of the year, reducing the accumulated loss.
SCU also has its challenges and one of them is loan delinquencies, described as defaulters, meaning members who are not paying their loans. And due to that the bank has had to resort to ceasing of assets or closing of accounts and to as far as resorting to the courts, as some of the measures.
“We need to remain solid, resilient and performing. This is possible through fidelity of members to repay their loans. You should abide by our motto: ‘Save Regularly, Borrow Wisely, Repay Promptly’, Mr Dora said.
He added that the bank had to chase defaulters constantly so as to be able to gain the needed revenue to lend to other members.
He said the main challenges faced by the bank is chasing defaulters, preserving the identity of SCU as a cooperative bank and not to so much becoming like other banks while taking into consideration the need to diversify its products to remain relevant.
The bank has to also provide a service that satisfies the majority as members are becoming more demanding.