What can go wrong, and who carries it
The most important page here. SaccoBid matches buyers and sellers of SACCO shares — it does not complete the transfer, hold the money, or guarantee the outcome. That means real risk sits with you, and you should know exactly where.
SaccoBid is a marketplace, not a broker, dealer or investment adviser. We are not licensed by the Capital Markets Authority and nothing here is investment advice. Nobody at SaccoBid can tell you whether a price is fair — that judgement is yours.
The SACCO can refuse the transfer
Every SACCO sets its own membership rules and its own transfer procedure. A buyer who does not meet those rules cannot become a member, and the transfer will not happen no matter what you and the seller agree.
- Some SACCOs restrict membership to a profession, employer or county.
- Some require board approval, which may only sit monthly.
- Some do not permit share transfers between members at all.
Confirm with the SACCO that you can join, and that they allow transfers, before you bid.
Shares pledged against a loan usually cannot move
This is the single most common reason a completed deal collapses. A member's shares can be tied up as security for their own loan, or for a loan they guaranteed for someone else — and many members genuinely do not realise the guarantee counts.
We ask about this on every verification call, but we are relying on the seller's answer and whatever document they can produce. We cannot query the SACCO's loan book.
Ask the SACCO directly whether the specific shares are unencumbered before you hand over money.
Verification is not a guarantee
A "Verified seller" badge means we spoke with the seller and checked the best proof their SACCO gives members — a recent statement, a portal balance, a SACCO contact, or, where the SACCO issues nothing, their identity alone. The badge looks the same whichever proof it rests on.
Verification reduces fraud. It does not eliminate it, and it is not a warranty of the seller's honesty or of the share's value.
Treat the badge as a first check, not the last one. The SACCO confirms the shares at transfer.
You pay the seller directly, and that money is not protected
The price of the shares passes from buyer to seller in person at the SACCO. It never passes through SaccoBid, we never hold it in escrow, and we cannot reverse it.
Never send money before the SACCO has recorded the transfer in your name. Anyone pressing you to pay in advance — including someone claiming to be from SaccoBid — should be reported to us and refused.
No transfer recorded, no money. There is no exception to this.
Share values move, and dividends are not promised
A SACCO's share value and its dividend history are not a forecast. Dividends depend on the SACCO's performance and are declared at the discretion of its members in general meeting. A SACCO can also be placed under statutory management.
What you pay a seller may be more or less than the share's nominal value. That is a negotiation between you, not a valuation by us.
What we do carry
Where we get things wrong, we own it. If a seller stops responding after selecting you, tell us — you have paid us nothing, and we will pursue the seller and can alert you to the next listing in that SACCO. Sellers who do this repeatedly lose their verified badge and their listings are removed.
If we published a verification badge we could not support, that is our error and we will say so publicly on the listing.