Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives

Overview of cooperatives in
Uganda
By
Fred Ahimbisibwe (SCO)
Map of Uganda
 Status of Co-operatives as at 31st December 2009

Category Registration status Probation Permanent

SACCOS 2417 1592 4009

Agricultural 2576
Marketing 2523 53

177
Diary 165 12

248
Transport 186 62

10
Housing 8 2

84
Fishing 71 13

567
Multipurpose 503 64
3286
Others 2892 394
Grand total 8811 2310 10,957
 Status of Co-operatives as at 31st December 2009

4500

4000

3500

3000

2500

2000

1500

1000

500

SACCOS Agricultural Diary Transport Housing Fishing Multipurpose Others

Marketing
Category
Status of Co-operatives as at 31st
December 2009

30% SACCOS
36%
Agricultural Marktg
Diary
Transport

Housing

Fishing
Multipurpose
5%
Others
0% 24%

1%
2%
2%
 Overview of cooperatives
• Figure: Societies by Region, Economic Activity and
Percentage, 2012

• The figure above shows that, across all regions, 46% of the
SACCOs were located in the central region, followed by western,
eastern and northern. The Western dominated in area of diary and
livestock (54%), while the Eastern region dominated in the area of
crop farming and marking (47%).

• Generally, majority of the SACCOs are located in the Central region,

Diary and Livestock societies in the Western region and Crop
Farming and Marketing societies in the Eastern region. It can also
be observed that there is also a fair distribution of active
 Interventions by MoTIC
Cooperative Development:
• Promotion of high value
commodity based
cooperatives using an
integrated approach model
• The figure depicts 3
community based and owned
form of cooperative Figure: Integrated
institutions-RPOs, ACEs and approach to local
economic development
SACCOs to be mutually
dependent, self-reinforcing in
the way gear levers in a
 Possible Interventions by MoTIC
(Cont’d)
• Each of the above 3 entities will be supported to
perform a specific function that will augment and
reinforce the function of the other for holistic
development of local communities.
• Forms of cooperatives that are are being
promoted include:
1.RPOS-Rural Producer Organisations
2.SACCOs – (Savings and Credit Cooperatives)
3.ACEs-Area Cooperative Enterprises
4.Energy cooperatives
5.Consumer cooperatives
6.Transport cooperatives
7.Service cooperatives
8.Workers cooperatives
9.Hand crafts cooperatives
 Possible Interventions by MoTIC (Cont’d)
Cooperative Development (Contd)
• Successful RPOs include: Lukyabwa Fishing
Cooperative society, Lujaggwa Multipurpose
cooperative society in Kalangala district.
• Successful SACCOs include: Mukono-Kayunga
Teachers’ SACCO, Masaka teachers’ SACCO,
Lwengo SACCO, Kyotera Tusimbudde, Lukaya
SACCO, Masaka Microfinance Cooperative
Development Trust, Masaka Elders’ SACCO,
Lwabenge Amazima Bwebugagga and Bagezza
SACCO in Mubende to mention a few.
• Successful ACEs include: Kangulumira ACE,
Kayunga ACE and Bagezza ACE in Mubende.
 Possible Interventions by MoTIC (Contd)
Major Challenges faced by Cooperatives
• Poor leadership and governance generally
• Inadequate capitalisation
• Insufficient economic patronisation by the members
• Lack of access to reliable markets that pay competitive
prices
• Inadequate storage, post harvest handling and agro
processing infrastructure
• Massive frauds by management staff and committees
• High level of dishonesty and lack of transparency on
the part of committees
• Lack of cooperative member education
• Some level of political interference from the local
politicians
 Possible Interventions by MoTIC (Contd)
Reasons for Successful Cooperatives
• Visionary leadership
• Good governance
• Business plans
• Continuous member education
• Market access
• Accountable, honest and transparent leadership
• Good management information system
• Separation of roles between committees and
staff
• Adherence to laws, policies and procedures by
all the members of the cooperative including
leaders.
• They promote capacity building and human
investment through member training and
education in various topics of members’ interest.

• They gain self respect, esteem and self reliance

and learn to trust their fellow co-operators
• Strengthening of family ties.
• They strengthen family ties hence peace
in the communities. This is true for the
main factor of family instability is the
financial problem, often caused by
mismanagement of the family income.
Through SACCOs people are shown how
to avoid pitfalls of money
mismanagement.
• SACCOs promote a saving culture amongst
their members (Ahimbisibwe, 2007).
• This is crucial
• because increased savings increase capital
accumulation ; investment which leads to
increased employment, hence increased incomes
thus breaking the vicious cycle of poverty.
• Employment opportunities: most of the
graduates in business studies and at times those
with masters have found employment
opportunities in those institutions.
• The employment opportunities generated is
estimated to be 9,465 jobs on average. This
reduces unemployment levels in the country
Coodept achievements
• Coodept recruited more members from 65 in
2006 to 136 to date
• Coodept has started accessing the prosperity
for all funds due to good performance
• Members can access cheaper loans
• members can get easy loans in cases of
emergencies like hospitalization, burial,
accident.
• Members have a place of belonging where they
can participate and control business together
• Coodept is easy to access because there is no
lining and in the same building
• Coodept has enabled retired members to
continue normally with life since they can
withdraw their savings on a monthly basis as
salary.
• Coodept has enabled members to start up
business, pay school fees, Build houses and
many others.
• Members have a facility to save their
money for the future through deductions
of affordable amounts
• Members can get interest on their savings
• In cases of good surplus, members can
get dividends to their share
Constraints

• Lack of basic infrastructure for effective

and competitive service delivery.
• Lack of Safety mechanisms to safeguard
members’ deposits
• Lack of Co-operative member education
and skills development which is either by
design or budgetary constraints.
 Lack of security support in relation to
guarding SACCO premises.
• In adequate loanable funds limits
achievement of outreach principle of the
Micro-Finance industry.
• Lack of SACCOs in some areas of Uganda
for example in Sub-
• insufficient loanable funds to handle big
demands, as our membership grows also
the demand for big money increases
• members don’t save but demand for
loans
• some members delay to repay the loan
especially those who promise to pay in
cash. After getting the loan they become
reluctant to repay the loan.
• Possible Interventions
• The MTTI is in the process of working out
appropriate arrangements for effective
regulation and supervision SACCOs by
appropriate regulatory regime and policy.
• There is need to up scale membership
education, skills, development training for
governance bodies and management staff.
• The dept is training commercial officers to
concentrate on the above activity.
• The department is encouraging SACCOs to
take on deposit insurance as a way of safe
guarding members’ savings and ensuring
confidence in SACCOs.
• The government is to provide start up kits
and basic logistical support to SACCOs in
need and those which are starting up.

• Government is also providing support

towards security of SACCO premises. This
could be in form of subsidy for the
SACCOs that have not yet attained a level
of financial self sufficiency.
 Conclusion

• SACCOs create an environment in which members can

improve their economic and social wellbeing .
• Improving ones’ economic status requires the ability to
earn income, to spend it wisely, to save part of it for
future benefit and, to have access to credit in order to
move into a productive enterprise or any other income
generating activity.
• All the values described above, are fully provided by
SACCOs. How ever, demand for their services far
outstrips their capacity.
• Let us all embrace COODEPT
ALL FOR ONE,
ONE FOR ALL !!