Underground Coverage: The Work Being Done to Spread CUs Across Africa

WASHINGTON — George Ombado, executive director of the African Confederation of Cooperative Savings and Credit Associations, said credit unions across Africa are working to advance democratic and community-based financial systems, even as leaders across the continent must often be persuaded of their value.

Speaking at Mitchell Stankovic’s Underground conference, Ombado said the global credit union movement is guided by core operating principles that focus on empowering people and strengthening communities.

“We believe in certain principles,” Ombado said. “The World Council has nine operating principles that supporters use the credit union system to empower the people around us.”

He said those principles center on three primary areas: democracy, membership and community engagement. Credit unions, he said, are designed to work within their communities and to serve as engines of local development.

Ombado noted that Africa is made up of 54 countries and that advancing the credit union model across such a diverse continent requires sustained advocacy with political leaders, governments and other stakeholders.

‘Believe in the Power’

“For the continent of Africa, institutions that are present in Africa — we have 54 countries — we have to work so hard to persuade many of those leaders across the continent, and governments, state actors and non-state actors, to believe in the power of the credit union system,” he said.

He added that partnerships have been critical to that effort, citing collaboration with the African American Credit Union Coalition and industry leaders such as Bill Cheney. Ombado recounted a meeting in which Cheney sat with the president of Kenya and encouraged him to embrace the credit union system as a tool for national development.

“He looked at his eyes and said, ‘Your country will develop if you use a credit union system,’” Ombado said. According to Ombado, the president responded that he was himself a member of a credit union.

‘Collective Strength’

While some scholars may view cooperative systems skeptically, Ombado said credit unions in Africa see their model as rooted in collective strength.

“The challenge that we face around the world — while various scholars may look at it in a negative way — for us as a credit union system, we are taking the path that accounts for the fact that we are stronger together,” he said.

“The world is resetting,” Ombado added. “There is no better place to reset the world than through the credit union system.”