Government launches study materials in Lango sub-region

LANGO – As the government prepares to reopen schools, Ministry of Education and Sports has launched home study materials in Lango region to cover both primary and secondary schools.

The home study materials will cater for primary one, four and senior five to ensure continuous learning, remedial learning and reawaken the learners.

State Minister for Sports, Denis Hamson Obua launched the distribution of the materials which will cover Kole, Alebtong, Lira, Kwania, Apac, Dokolo, Oyam and Amolatar districts.

President Yoweri Museveni closed education institutions last year as a measure to stop the spread of COVID-19 and as a result 15 million learners were sent back home. On the 1st November 2021, the government ordered the institution to resume studies.

Obua said, as they fully plan to re-open schools, stakeholders who include teachers, parents and pupils should prepare so that the exercise doesn’t take them by surprise.

Obua expressed concern over teenage pregnancy in the country saying children are not safe in the hands of their parents except in school.

He said children have become unsafe which means parents have abandoned their responsibility to guide their children.

“If children are not safe because schools were closed as a result of Covid-19, where else do you think they will be safe,” Obua asked.

According to the police and local leadership in Alebtong, 2,190 cases of teenage pregnancies were recorded in the district within the period of January to July, over 2500 in Kwania, 1,800 in Apac, 2,074 in Amolatar and more than 2,000 in Otuke.

“If nothing is done to save the situation, it will be worse in the next few months,” said Alebtong LC5 Chairperson, David Kennedy Odongo who is also the Chairperson of Lango LCV Chairpersons.

He also advised the government to fix the roofs of four primary schools in the district whose roofs were blown off.

“Alebtong district is more than ready to teach effectively if the situation allows next year,” he says.

He identified the schools whose roofs were blown off as Baropiro, Omarari, Amononeno and Amugu quran.

He said the district is setting up village education committees, parishes and sub-counties to mobilize the community to embrace education.

On secondary education, Odongo said if the government is to improve on sciences, they should build laboratories in all the schools in the sub-region and equip them.

“Unless we have functional laboratories in our schools, science will still be history,” he said.

https://thecooperator.news/prime-minister-nabbajja-restores-hope-on-bunyoro-university-demands/

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Microfinance Institutions In Trouble In Kwania

KWANIA –In Kwania and Apac Northern districts Savings and Credit Co-operative Societies (SACCOs) have become the preferred go-to lenders threatening to lock out microfinance institutions.

The SACCOs are drawing in huge numbers of civil servants who ordinarily are clients of microfinance institutions.

SACCO leaders in the two districts have agreed to bolster the inter-SACCO lending market by lending and borrowing money from each other – thereby locking out microfinance institutions whose loans are considered ‘expensive.’

Under the new arrangement, 11-SACCOs in the two districts will run their own inter-SACCO market. They will be able to lend and borrow from each other at reasonable interest rates to offset their dire financial positions.

Their proposed working arrangement has been forwarded to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives for legal advice.

Robert Odur, the Chairman Board of Directors of Ikwera SACCO in Kwania district, said the latest move is bound to put an end to the exploitative commercial relationship between civil servants and microfinance institutions, which is costly to many borrowers.

According to Odur, many civil servants are shunning the expensive microfinance loans.

“We want to create a forum through which SACCOs can interact. For example, if SACCO ‘A’ has a cash flow problem it should be able to access funding from SACCO ‘B’. It just allows SACCOs to team up and develop their capacity to serve their members. The current situation is that if your SACCO runs short of money the only place you can go to is the nearby SACCO to save civil servants from microfinance lending institutions,” Odur said in a recent interview.

Bazil Odongo, a livestock dealer and resident of Ololango Village in Apac district, said he borrowed Shs 25 million in October last year at an 8% interest rate from Acanpekun Credit and Cooperative Society in the district. Odongo said he has serviced the loan well and is making a lot of profit.

“Shs 25 million that I used to borrow from Platinum (microfinance) at an interest rate of 10% could earn me a profit of Shs 5 million, but when I opted to borrow the same amount from the SACCO, I started realizing a profit of Shs 10 million. That is why I am expanding my livestock business,” he said.

William Odoc, a teacher at Acungi primary school in Kwania district, said many teachers are turning to SACCOs.

https://thecooperator.news/budget-kwania-cooperatives-get-shs-89m/

He said microfinance institutions make unnecessary deductions on teachers’ salaries even after loans are repaid.

“It is better to acquire loans from SACCOs, it’s easy to access and repay unlike the microfinance lending institutions that are fond of making unnecessary deductions and chasing after defaulting customers,” he noted.

But Patrick Okullo, the manager Platinum Apac branch, dismissed as false claims that microfinance institutions make unnecessary deductions and chase after debtors. “In the financial year 2018/2020 our loan portfolio was at the tune of Shs 300 million, however, in the financial year 2019/2020 we realized a drop of up to Shs 180m, this is partly attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic. Although to some extent we think the coming up of SACCOs is equally doing us more harm,” he said.

Apac District Local Government currently has a total of six fully registered SACCOs with 1,512 Village Saving Lending Associations, (VSLA) and three Microfinance institutions that include; Brac, Platinum and, Bayport operating in the two districts of Apac and Kwania, with over 15,000 clients.

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SACCO Leaders Shun Management Training

HOIMA – Last week Hoima City and the district leadership scheduled two weeks of training sessions in financial literacy for all SACCO leaders that lack basic money management knowledge but surprisingly they were shunned by many.

Speaking to theCooperator Joy Kabatalya, the Emyooga focal person, said the training sessions were meant to equip SACCO leaders with financial management skills and help them understand the concept of the Presidential Initiative On Job And Wealth Creation (Emyooga).

She said city and district leaders also wanted to equip SACCO leaders with knowledge and skills in SACCO management to ensure sustainability and avoid misappropriation of funds.

According to her, the trainings are conducted at the respective sub county/division headquarters but unfortunately many have shunned the sessions.

She said only 30 out of 72 SACCO leaders turned up.

Kabatalya warned that members who shun financial literacy training will not access funds since the training is a mandatory condition for accessing the funds.

“We were training them as one way of preparing them before accessing this money to understand the do’s and don’ts of this initiative, to avoid what is happening in other districts where SACCPO leaders are embezzling the money but most of the leaders have decided to shun the training,” she said.

She also decried the poor saving culture among SACCO members yet they must save at least 30 percent of the money they apply for to be eligible for the Emyooga loans.

Kabatalya said the condition is forcing some SACCO members to withdraw their membership, which is detrimental to the future of SACCOs.

In the same week Hoima district and city authorities led by Samuel Kisembo Hoima, the Resident City Commissioner, released 62 SACCO certificates out of 72, which were formed from1,460 Emyooga associations.

https://thecooperator.news/anger-in-hoima-as-leaders-cling-on-to-emyooga-cash/

However, after handing over the certificates, the SACCO leaders were told they will not access the money until they get financial literacy empowerment. Hoima district and city received Shs 2.24 billion to be disbursed to 72 SACCOs.

John Tumusiime, the Hoima District Commercial Officer, said financial literacy training is mandatory because it will help beneficiaries to ensure that Emyooga cash, which is meant to be a revolving fund, is used sustainably.

“You need to put in place measures to ensure that the systems and structures of the SACCOs and associations are strengthened. For example, you need to have proper records, offices, which are independent from individual members’ businesses, and staff with basic qualifications,” he advised.

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Poor management to blame for collapsing Lango SACCOs-Expert

Savings and Credit Cooperative Organizations (Saccos) in Lango Sub-region are collapsing due to mismanagement, experts have said.

Speaking during a 5-day training of Acan-pe-Kun SACCO members on Thursday, the Chief Executive Officer of Ngetta Tropical Holdings, Paul Omara, said that, so far, five prominent SACCOs in Lango have collapsed in the past two years, and more others are on the verge of failure.

Those that have collapsed include Abutabera Youth SACCO in Apac district, Aloi Women SACCO in Alebtong district, and Dokolo United SACCO Limited in Dokolo district, among others.

Some of the co-operatives have also failed to repay the Shs 198m that they borrowed from the Government through the Microfinance Support Centre, while members are in court seeking a refund of their savings and shares in billions of shillings.

But Omara, an Economist and former banker pointed out poor management, political influence and conflicts between the SACCO boards and managers as major issues tearing SACCOs apart.

He noted that oftentimes the SACCO Managers are responsible for their collapse because they embezzle members’ money.

“When you are electing board members, you choose the uneducated and then employ well-educated managers and other staff who manipulate the system and steal all the money. The board cannot supervise them because they do not know anything,” Omara argued.

Philip Otim, the Apac District Commercial Officer concurred with Omara’s diagnosis, adding in such cases it is difficult to prosecute the culprits.

“There are many managers who have run off with cooperatives’ money in this district. It is hard to prosecute them because they manipulate the board, banking on the members’ limited education. There are so many such cases in court,” Otim said.

Acan-pe-Kun SACCO Limited was opened in 2011 by farmers in Chegere Sub-county. The SACCO, which has a loan portfolio of Shs 975m, operates on its own piece of land and office premises at Ololango trading centre, Chegere, Apac district.

Allan Okii, the cooperative’s Chairperson, says they have 473 members who are committed to the aspirations of the SACCO.

He appealed to the government to provide cooperative societies with low-interest agricultural loans to enhance their production and alleviate poverty.

“The major goal of SACCOs is to promote access to finance, especially among the poor who are actively engaged in any economic activity. The government should extend soft loans to SACCOs with the interest of as low as 1 per cent to help eradicate poverty,” he said.

In June last year, the Prime Minister, Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, said the government was considering strengthening SACCOs in rural areas in order to fight household poverty.

“We are studying how to strengthen the SACCOs because the Youth Livelihood Programme (YLP) and Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Programme (UWEP) as measures to reduce poverty have made little impact,” Dr Rugunda said.

The Prime Minister said the YLP and UWEP funds had been abused to the extent that the beneficiaries had failed to repay the money yet they are supposed to be revolving funds.

He added that despite the government injecting billions of funds into the programmes, little has been achieved on the ground.

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Bwijanga Coffee Cooperative targets coffee processing machine

Bwijanga Coffee Cooperative Society Limited in Bwijanga Sub-county, Masindi district is in the process of acquiring a coffee processing machine that will enable them to add value to their coffee.

According to Benedicto Ssensaga the Chairperson, Bwijanga Coffee Cooperative Society Limited, the processing machine will be established in Kikingura village Kitamba parish Bwijanga sub-county.

“We are now going to benefit from our coffee because we going to add value to it instead of selling raw materials. We have enough coffee to feed the machine, and I am optimistic that our economic status is to change due to this investment,” he explained.

Ssensaga says that the members of the cooperative have a combined acreage of over 500 acres of coffee, a figure he predicts will rise even higher since they are still admitting more members.

MAAIF support

Ssensaga also revealed to theCooperator that the cooperative has secured the support of the Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF) towards its goal of acquiring the coffee processor.

“Last year, we were told that we would be supported under the Agriculture Cluster Development Program (ACDP). Under the matching grant, we were asked to contribute 33% of the price of the machine, which amounts to 75 million shillings, and the government promised to put up the remaining 230 million shillings,” said Ssensaga.

He explained that the coop’s contribution will be made in form of materials and land.

“We already have the land and have bought the necessary building materials,” he said, adding that they are now waiting for the relevant district officials to come and assess the situation on the ground.

“In the meantime, internally we are mobilizing our members to ensure that they solicit for the required money to bring the machine to our cooperative.”

Simon Wairima, the Cooperative Secretary, revealed that some of the necessities have been acquired, including a Tax Identification Number, Pro forma invoices from the machine supplier, and developing the farmers’ register.

Last Thursday, the concerned district officials and the cooperative’s leadership had a planning meeting on how to proceed.

About Bwijanga Coffee Coop

Founded in 2019, Bwijanga Coffee Cooperative Society Limited already has over 1000 active members drawn from the entire Bwijanga sub-county.

The same cooperative introduced a saving scheme last year that requires every member to buy a minimum of two shares, each at Shs 30,000.

Bwijanga Coffee Cooperative Society Limited is one of four active coffee cooperatives in Masindi district, the others being Karujubu Coffee Cooperative Society Limited, Pakanyi Coffee Cooperative Society Limited, and Alimugonza Coffee Cooperative Society Limited.

Coffee growing has picked up significantly throughout Masindi district following the distribution of coffee seedlings to farmers by the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) under Operation Wealth Creation (OWC).

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Kwania district launches Teachers’ SACCO

Kwania district officials have launched a teachers’ savings and credit cooperative organization (SACCO).

The SACCO, which will accommodate all 1,074 teachers of primary and secondary public schools in the district, was launched during a recent workshop on financial literacy education organized for headteachers at St. Margaret Primary School in Aduku Town Council.

Members will be required to pay Shs 20,000 in Membership Fee, and also buy shares at Shs 10,000 each.

The SACCO, which was opened with support from Germany NGO, Savings Banks Foundation for International Cooperation (SBFIC), hopes to inculcate a saving culture among the teachers.

Kwania Resident District Commissioner, Salim Komakech, while presiding over the SACCO’s launch, pledged to support the fledgling society in its growth.

“We are going to do a lot of training to make the SACCO grow, and it will make the district exemplary in the entire Lango,” Komakech pledged.

RDC Komakech also advised the teachers to embrace value addition initiatives and vowed to lobby for funding for such undertakings from donors, ministries, or NGOs.

He encouraged the Teachers’ Union branch officials in the district and the Education Office to work together to popularise the SACCO among teachers in all the schools with the aim of fighting exploitation by financial institutions which he said charge exorbitant interest on loans.

Meanwhile, Andrew Omunu, the Kwania District Education Officer (DEO), urged teachers to decisively implement the resolutions agreed upon in the formation of the SACCO to enable it to expand and succeed.

For his part, Geoffrey Akodo, the Apac district Uganda National Teachers’ Union (UNATU) Chairman, cautioned the newly elected SACCO leadership against personalizing the SACCO.

“You are aware that Apac Teachers’ SACCO had a lot of issues. The headteachers who were elected as SACCO leaders personalized it and swindled all the funds disbursed to it by the government. I ask the Kwania Teachers’ SACCO leaders to be more transparent and accountable; don’t personalize the SACCO,” he said.

Akodo also rallied the SACCO members to embrace commercial farming as an alternative source of livelihoods rather than depending entirely on their salaries.

The interim committee elected to kickstart the SACCO’s operations includes Patrick Odongo, the Headteacher of Aboko Primary School as Chairperson, deputized by Claire Awor, Headteacher of Aporwegi Primary School.

Richard Kenneth Ayo, the Headteacher of Punoatar Primary School was voted Treasurer while James Ojok, the Headteacher of Itekiber Primary School, was elected unopposed as the SACCO Secretary.

Other headteachers elected as members of the interim committee include; Toga Francis, Joy Okello, Molly Ajwang, William Okok, Sylvester Omara, and Robert Odur Okello.

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Advocacy platform needed for Agriculture sector post-COVID- NAAC

The National Alliance of Agricultural Co-operatives (NAAC) has called for the formation of a nationwide agricultural advocacy platform to bridge the gap between the government and the other actors in Uganda’s agricultural sector.

The call was made at a recent consultative meeting organized by the NAAC, which was attended by, among others, representatives from the Office of the Prime Minister, Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, and Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Cooperatives.

During the meeting, the national level co-operative union shared the findings of a survey it conducted to describe and analyze the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the relationships between market actors within selected value chains.

The resulting report identified and measured resilience strategies adopted by different market actors following lockdown measures rolled out by governments across the globe in response to the pandemic.

Connecting actors in the Agric sector

Key among recommendations on how to strengthen the functionality and inclusiveness of markets in the wake of the pandemic was the establishment of a National Agricultural Advocacy Platform.

The platform will provide a permanent space for sector actors to engage the Government of Uganda and other stakeholders with policy proposals to develop resilient Agri-market systems that can mitigate, adapt to and recover from shocks and stresses while facilitating inclusive growth.

One of the participants, Joseo Tegyeza, a Commissioner from the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), emphasized the need to adapt pragmatically to the post-pandemic reality without sacrificing service delivery.

“We need to pin COVID-19 squarely by finding ways to work around it because it’s the only way forward. We shouldn’t use it as an excuse not to deliver,” he said.

For his part, Dr. Moki M. Abubaker, Commissioner for Policy Development and Capacity Building at OPM, called for partnerships among the various entities saying, “that it is the only way to reach out to all stakeholders, especially the farmers.”

The survey’s sample comprised of 886 Ugandan farmers (35% female) and 470 businesses, and included traders, transporters, processors, and financiers from Ntugamo, Mubende, Kasese, Bushenyi, Kiruhura, Ibanda, Sembabule, Wakiso, Lira, Gulu, and Tororo, to mention but a few.

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Eastern Kyoga Multipurpose Cooperative members join ACDP two years after launch

Members of Eastern Kyoga Multi-Purpose Co-operative Society (EKMCS) in Serere district are slowly embracing the Agricultural Cluster Development Project (ACDP), two years after its introduction in the region.

ACDP is a five-year government project that aims to boost on-farm productivity and improve post-harvest handling capabilities for selected agricultural commodities, in chosen areas in the country, by helping farmers acquire agricultural inputs such as fertilizers, tarpaulins and pesticides.

A first-time beneficiary of the scheme is required to contribute 33% of Shs 450,000 in the first season (Shs 148,500) while the government tops up the remaining 67% of the cost of the inputs. In the second season, the beneficiary and government split the cost equally and each pay 50% of the cost of inputs. In the third season, the government pays 33%, and the beneficiary covers the rest.

Once burnt…

However, although the ACDP was introduced in 2018, members of the Eastern Kyoga cooperative only started embracing it in 2020 because of a bad experience many had had with a cryptocurrency venture called E-Coin.

theCooperator has established that, in 2016, the cooperative’s then 20 members were persuaded to invest in E-Coin, with the promise that they would reap Shs 150,000 per week.

“Some members of the cooperative even sold their animals to participate in the E-coin venture and ended up losing millions of shillings,” Stephen Epau, the Manager of EKMCS and Chairperson, Omagara Rice Growers, said in an interview.

“Because of that, members became sceptical of any program requiring them to pay money to benefit,” he said by way of explanation of the initial resistance to ACDP which is premised on partial farmer investment.

Warming to ACDP

Nevertheless, Epau said the cooperative’s members, who have grown to 100 in the past year, started enrolling for ACDP after a series of sensitisation outreaches.

As a result of the sensitisation efforts, two farmers’ groups- Omagara Rice Growers and Agurur Cassava Growers- were formed, with 70 members enrolled for ACDP.

“In a day we can register at least five new members. But I believe that when the information spreads, we shall register more. Currently, more than 70 people have finalized the registration process and are just waiting to be availed with the inputs,” Epau said.

Steven Omilgor, a cassava farmer, disclosed that he was conned of Shs 1.5m through the E-coin project, and it took time for him to believe in ACDP.

” But I am now grateful that I joined ACDP because I was able to plant 5 acres of cassava last season-more than I have ever planted before- because of the inputs received under the project,” he said.

Benjamin Odeke, another cassava farmer who joined the cooperative last year, said joining ACDP has made his work easier.

“Much as I have oxen [for ploughing], they cannot do a lot of work in the shortest time possible. But with ACDP, I can use tractors and plough large acres in a short time. The provision of tarpaulins has also made me give clean produce,” Odeke said.

Jennifer Icodu, the Secretary of Agurur Cassava Growers, told theCooperator that she has received 8 bags of cassava cuttings and a tarpaulin, in addition to having 2 acres of her land ploughed

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Unlicensed SACCOs risk closure, accused of preying on savers

Members of unlicensed Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies (SACCOs) are at risk of losing their hard-earned savings, Philip Otim, the Apac District Commercial Officer, has warned.

Available figures indicate that there are at least 14,000 licensed SACCOs in the country, while over 5,000 others are unlicensed and therefore operating illegally, without the knowledge of the regulator.

Otim issued the warning while handing over the ‘Probationary Certificate of Existence’ to Abulomogo Maize Farmers’ and Credit Cooperative Society in Kidiani parish, Chegere Sub County, in Apac district on Thursday.

Abulomogo is one of ten SACCOs that were recently granted restricted licenses by the Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) and the Registrar of Cooperative Societies to operate for six months ending in June this year.

Otim said that the bureau is in the process of cracking down on illegal SACCOs in order to safeguard savers from unscrupulous individuals.

“Notice is given to public and private entities that engage in any form of deposit-taking or SACCO business transactions with SACCOs that are not licensed: they are doing so at their own peril, and we will not be held accountable if the SACCOs disappear with their money,” he said.

He added that the law regulating the operation of Saccos makes it a criminal offense for any person to engage in SACCO business without a valid license from the authority.

“The has regulator cautioned such SACCOs, saying they face criminal proceedings for operating illegally and endangering members’ money. Those operating illegally face a fine of up to Shs 500, 000 or imprisonment for three years,” he added.

David Odora the Chegere Sub County male Councillor tasked SACCO leaders to ensure that their entities are quickly registered with the Registrar of Cooperatives to avoid risks. He also cautioned the public against saving and borrowing with unregistered SACCOs.

“How would you risk your money with unlicensed Saccos? Don’t throw your money in the rubbish pit by saving with some of these SACCOs that are not known by the government,” he said.

The Apac District Operation Wealth Creation Coordinator Col. Godfrey Okello appealed to Abulomogo’s members to be innovative and identify other income-generating projects to promote the progress of their SACCO.

“Save, borrow, pay, and above all think of other business ventures to develop your SACCO further,” he advised.

He also cautioned them to eschew the mismanagement of public funds and instead embrace transparency and accountability.

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