Credit Union members extends mandate for board of directors |07 October 2019
The AGM on Saturday
The Seychelles Credit Union’s (SCU) board of directors, whose three-year mandate has elapsed, was endorsed to serve for one more year during the cooperative’s 49th annual general meeting held on Saturday.
The extension of the board’s mandate came after the board requested that members amend the bye-law which would allow them to serve on the board until the next annual general meeting (AGM).
A new board of directors, as well as a new supervisory committee, was supposed to be voted on in Saturday’s meeting but this did not occur because of the challenges the Credit Union is facing with the Central Bank of Seychelles (CBS) in regards to the vetting process.
Board chairman Selby Dora explained that the Credit Union needs five members to be vetted for the post of board of directors and another three for the supervisory committee, and yet CBS successfully cleared only five members.
“We did not receive the number of candidates needed for an election. Since this was the case, the Central Bank approved for us to hold a non-election AGM in order to clear out the issues of dividend so that our members are not impacted,” Mr Dora remarked.
“We are working together with CBS to clear issues relating to legislations and matters relating to vetting so that our members can have a clear understanding on how the vetting process is undertaken. Hopefully this will allow us to hold an election at the next AGM.”
Aside from Mr Dora the board of directors includes Bernard Elizabeth (vice- chairman), Brian Julie, Divino Sabino, Emile Esparon and Ingrid Sinon, the chief executive of SCU who is an ex-officio member of the board as well as its secretary.
The supervisory committee consists of Patrick Bonnelame (chairman), Germaine Gill and Patrick Pierre.
The SCU members were also unable to vote on the resolution to re-appoint Baker Tilly Chartered Accountants as the cooperative’s external auditor since CBS had sent a letter, a day prior to the AGM, stating that it does not approve on the re-appointment of Baker Tilly and that SCU should look for an alternate auditor.
Both issues raised various points of contentions wherein some members expressed that the CBS is exerting too much control on SCU, and some even asked whether SCU was now considered a bank given that SCU is seemingly being treated like banks.
CBS is the regulatory body for banks and the SCU – the only community-based savings and credit cooperative society in Seychelles – and works to ensure that these entities respect Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) norms.
During the AGM, members also considered SCU’s performance for the financial year ending December 31, 2018.
The total net interest income for 2018 stood at R31.429 million which is an increase of R3.931 million (14%) from the R27.498 million observed in the previous year.
SCU further recorded a net surplus of R9,761,426 in 2018, a 36% growth in net surplus compared to 2017.
Membership also increased by 6.8% with 1110 new members admitted during the year, making the numbers go from 15,619 members to 16,686.
“Our performance over the last financial year shows that the Credit Union is healthy. The last three years have seen continuous improvements and what we have to do is ensure that this remains the case because we operate in a very competitive environment,” Mr Dora highlighted.
Even with a good performance and increase in surplus, the board of directors has opted to keep the dividend payout at 5% per share as has been the case for the last three years.
It will dole out a total of R3,008,773 as dividend.
The remaining surplus (R5,387,644) is being kept as reserves in case of possible crises.
“Just because we have earned more does not necessarily mean that we have to give out more than 5%. We have to always remain vigilant and we always have to keep a reserve on hand for any unexpected scenarios in the future,” Mr Dora clarified.
The AGM also saw discussions on the SCU’s new ATM services which its CEO, Ms Sinon, hopes would be ready by December, 2019.
With transactional fees being set at R7 when SCU members use their Visa cards, it is projected that this might impact on SCU’s bottom line and consequently on the members’ dividends in the future.
Unlike banks, credit unions are owned by its members which means that opening an account at a credit union will guarantee stakes in the organisation.
