Advocates for cooperatives in Uganda are calling for a single, strong regulator to oversee all cooperative operations, aiming to boost the country’s economic growth.
At the launch of the Uganda Parliamentary Forum for Cooperatives, the Forum Chairperson and Ngora District Woman MP Stella Isodo Apolot supported by Wilson Nyabutundu, Advocacy Manager Uganda Cooperative Alliance highlighted that the challenges facing cooperatives stem from gaps in laws and the lack of unified supervision.
Currently, different authorities oversee SACCOS and cooperatives, leading to bureaucratic delays and difficult monitoring.
Nyabutundu welcomed the forum which is seen as a key step in shaping policy and raising awareness about cooperatives as a driver of economic progress. He gave an example of having the issues of cooperatives taught in schools, tertiary institutions and universities.
“One of our key roles is education and awareness creation for the cooperative movement in line with the international cooperative principle number five which says there should always be member education and we are engaging various stakeholders to say how do we assure that cooperatives is incorporated in our national education curriculum so that our young people can grow up knowing what cooperatives is”-Nyabutundu
State Minister for Cooperatives, Frederick Ngobi Gume acknowledged that cooperatives are under different supervisors such as the ministry of Finance, the ministry of Trade and Bank of Uganda which affects monitoring.
In response to calls for reviving the Cooperative Bank, Gume emphasized the need for the liquidation report from Bank of Uganda, but assured that efforts to revive the bank are progressing despite the delayed release of the report.
“Why did you close the Cooperative Bank? We need a liquidation report. It is in black and white. The Bank of Uganda has up to now for the past nine years not released the liquidation report of the Cooperative Bank. And the Governor said we’ll respond to that soon, up to now. But the Cooperative Bank which you want to revive, you must analyze the reasons that led to its collapse before you move on. So up to now, we have tried our level best. We need everybody’s support and your advocacy will help us a lot”-Gume noted
