Conan Businge And Juliet Waiswa
30 June 2008
Kampala — SAVINGS, Credit and Cooperative Societies (SACCOS) have rejected the Government's proposal to shift them to the finance ministry. The SACCOS also want the requirement for a minimum institutional capital of 8% to be lowered to 4%.
They also proposed having all co-operatives applying for operating licenses within three months after registering. The Government has been carrying out consultations on how cooperatives can best be revamped as it rolls out the Prosperity-for-All programme.
The SACCOS representatives argued in a special meeting in Kampala that poor controls and biased laws were responsible for the collapse of the cooperative movements in the past.
They said this mistake should not be repeated.
Under their umbrella organisation, the Uganda Cooperative Alliance, the SACCOS opposed sections of the proposed SACCOs Act of Uganda (2008), and the draft SACCOs Regulations.
Leonard Msemakweli, the alliance's treasurer, said under the proposed legislation, all cooperatives must affiliate to one national apex organisation.
However, he argued: "The cooperatives should be free to affiliate to any SACCO in the district, regional and national apex organisations in accordance with institutional cooperative principles and the Constitution of Uganda."
Msemakweli said cooperatives collapsed in the past because of the Government control.
"There will also be no democratic dispensation in our operations with the proposed laws," he argued.
The alliance also wants Prosperity-For-All programme and politics be separated from cooperatives.
Dr. Specioza Kazibwe, proposed the revival of the cooperatives ministry as a way of fostering rural transformation and attitude.
"We should be more interested in the productivity of people, increasing job creation and boosting our agrarian economy," Kazibwe, the chairperson of Tujja Saving and Credit Society, said.
Kazibwe is a former vice-president. She is also the chairperson of the state-run Microfinance Support Centre.
The centre channels funds from the Government and the African Development Bank to microfinance organisations under the Prosperity-For-All scheme.
"The Government should come out clearly and state the strategy it is going to use.
"We need to advance structural transformation in raising the welfare of our people," Kazibwe told the meeting.
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