MINSK, Belarus-The World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) and the National Association of Cooperative Savings & Credit Unions (NACSCU) have partnered to provide credit union development assistance here.
"Our top priorities are staff training, credit union accounting software and credit union legislation," said Elena Koleda, manager of the Republican Association of Consumer Cooperative Societies for Mutual Financial Assistance, the trade association representing credit unions in Belarus. Such efforts would help the Eastern European country's existing eight credit unions grow as a movement to a size necessary to become a more formidable influence in serving Belarus' population, WOCCU said.
At the urging of the United Nations, WOCCU first looked into developing credit unions in Belarus in 1997. During subsequent years, NACSCU's foundation provided the support necessary to develop the country's very first financial cooperatives, and in 2007 Belarus' credit union trade association was formed.
Currently, the country's credit unions serve a mix of professionals and small business owners in the capital city of Minsk, as well as rural communities across the country.
