MINNEAPOLIS–Kenyan-Americans here are seeking to charter their own credit union.
Organizers have targeted a launch date of 2017 or early 2018, according to Mshale.com.
The credit union will be known as Sunrise Minto with a distinct mission to tailor services specific to the Kenyan-American experience, Mshale.com reported.
Minto is the Kisii word for home or “our home.” The Kisii community which hails from western Kenya is the single largest among the Kenyan communities in Minnesota. Mshale said its internal working numbers estimates the community at 70% of Kenyans in the state.
The credit union’s organizers noted that among NCUA’s requirements to charter a new CU is interest from potential members, and backers are now working to gather a minimum of 3,000 potential members. Those potential members then have to indicate how much they plan, for example, to put into a savings account in the proposed credit union after they have paid their share capital to be owners, MShale.com reported.
Over the course of the last six months, an interim board consisting of influential Kenyan-Americans has slowly been going about the onerous task of gathering the required signatures from Kenyans in Minnesota and Texas and selling the vision of the credit union, Mshale.com reported.
“We believe we have the numbers that will satisfy NCUA,” Dr. Ibrahim Oenga, the interim president of the board of Sunrise Minto told Mshale during an interview.
There are an estimated 20,000 Kenyans in Minnesota.