Cash-strapped SIC Investment Co-operative plans to offload its undeveloped land to ease liquidity pressures and pay millions of shillings owed to investors.
The co-operative, which formerly traded as Safaricom Investment Co-operative, is struggling to settle claims from customers who invested fortunes in the Pepea Fixed Deposit product that was offering them annual returns of up to 12 percent.
The board has now approved the sale of the co-operative’s land parcels to ease liquidity pressures and settle investor dues. SIC also plans to use the proceeds to compensate shareholders whose shares were sold on the secondary market but remain unpaid.
SIC told investors at the recently held annual general meeting it will prioritise settling Sh396 million owed to Pepea investors. It also said it was open to swapping part of the money with land for willing investors.
‘We are actively working on offloading our existing land bank as part of our strategy to enhance liquidity and drive revenue growth. This will not only improve our cashflows but also allow the society to refocus on more viable and high-yield opportunities,’ said Jared Odhiambo, acting chief executive at SIC.
In the year ended December 2024, SIC held Sh578.34 million worth of land for sale and a further Sh481.14 million as land held for investment. The land that SIC had earmarked for investment are in different locations including Athi River, Kiserian, Kitengela, Ngong, Nyeri and Ruaka.
Former officials and staff of SIC are staring at possible arrest and asset seizures after a forensic audit exposed years of fraud, inflated land deals and manipulation of financial records that cost members hundreds of millions of shillings.
SIC chairman Vincent Opiyo told members that the co-operative will pursue individuals named in the 400-page audit to trace and recover the losses through the help of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and the Asset Recovery Agency.
‘This report provides the foundation to go after the perpetrators. The board will take the report and present it to the DCI. We will sit with the DCI and follow the trail of the money,’ said Mr Opiyo.
Mr Odhiambo said SIC management ‘sincerely regrets the liquidity challenges currently facing the society,’ including inability to settle dues on the Pepea Fixed Deposit product on time and processing refunds to members exiting the institution.
SIC had marketed Pepea as an ‘exclusive product’ offering what it called ‘lucrative and competitive rates in the market, second to none.’ The minimum investment was a one-off Sh50,000, locked in for a period of between six and 12 months.
Investors who placed between Sh50,000 and Sh500,000 were to earn returns of 10 percent and 10.5 percent for six-month and 12-month tenures, respectively. Returns were to rise to 11.5 percent and 12 percent for investments exceeding Sh3 million.