THE REINVENTION OF : A SUSTAINABLE DRIVE TO

ARISE 63 • 17 he close of the second millennium operation of the most recent model improve without the financial in announced itself of cooperatives. When the traditional cooperatives. The process of value in a shocking manner. Charles cooperatives got challenges, they were addition needs finances. It is often Kikonyongo, the then Bank of a result of financial mismanagement through SACCOs that this demand TUganda Governor, released a statement and governance issues. But the most can be fulfilled. that the Uganda Bank had recent cooperatives are in the form of become insolvent. On 19 May 1999, the SACCOs. Some SACCOS are community- What is the strength of the bank was closed. That single statutory based, operating especially upcountry, new cooperative unions? What action had instantly crippled the while some are non-community-based. guarantees their sustainability? hopes and aspirations of many farmers’ The community-based SACCOs have, We cannot fully grasp the reasons cooperatives. Over a long period of in fact, displaced the commercial for the collapse of the Cooperative time, the general consensus has been banks in some areas. People don’t Bank, given that we didn’t receive that the cooperatives were dead and normally clearly differentiate SACCOs a liquidation report from the buried. Yet reading the demographics from cooperatives. Yet, SACCOs are one government. We are mitigating the seems to suggest something different. form of cooperatives. They are, though, unforeseen challenges by building Over the last 20 years, the number of only financial cooperatives which internal reserves. Internal capital cooperatives has increased. mainly came into exsitance after the through shareholding by members 1999 closure of the Cooperative Bank, enables the SACCOs to survive in Conversations with Dennis Ashaba of courtesy of the Uganda Cooperative case of any discontinuation of Uganda Central Cooperative Financial Alliance. subscription by any given member. Services Ltd (UCCFS), Dorothy Baziwe The new SACCOs cannot be of Shelter and Settlement Alternatives So how are you striking a balanced entirely affected by, for example, (SSA), Kiyingi Edward of Uganda working relationship with the withdrawal of external funding. Housing Cooperative Union (UHOCU) different cooperatives? and several other stakeholders in the We are promoting an integrated What are you doing differently cooperative movement in Uganda approach within cooperatives by, from the Cooperative Bank? have been quite illuminating on the for example, creating a link between Digital financing is our target resilience of cooperatives. However, the financial cooperatives and non- presently. It is an attempt to they have evolved into a new form. financial cooperatives. The producer modernise the operations of cooperatives will, for example, not SACCOs. We have a programme UCCFS was formed to act as a central where we are supporting SACCOs to financial authority for cooperatives put up the infrastructure required after the collapse of Uganda The standard to promote mobile banking. We are Cooperative Bank. The aim was to giving the SACCOs computers, solar provide meaningful loans, competitive bylaw systems, internet connectivity and interest rates and secure savings printers as part of the logistical kit accounts to all its members. governing to facilitate mobile banking. Eighty cooperatives in Uganda are now With over 25 years of experience in cooperatives using the M-SACCO technology. cooperative societies, Ashaba, in his conversation with , starts off by is that a third We are also promoting insurance offering us an insight into the status services – with life insurance and of the modern cooperative. of the leaders general insurance policies. Each should be loan, too, from SACCOs, should be Are Cooperatives really still alive? insured so that no one incurs loses It is a misconception that cooperatives women in case of unprecedented failure to are dead and dormant. They are pay back. actually up and running. However, the modus operandi of the traditional We are also, however, targeting cooperatives is different from the rural producer organisations

18 • ARISE 64 (RPOs), area cooperative enterprises education. Illiteracy levels are more leaders should be women. We and some cooperatives in northern and pronounced among the women than are using this model within our eastern Uganda. the men. Financial illiteracy among the structures to lobby for more like- women is thus more prominent than minded organisations to implement How are you incorporating the among men. this gender guideline. Within our participation of women into all structures, women in management these programmes? Akampurira Doreen, the Manager of have also been beneficiaries of We are developing and implementing Kanungu Teacher’s SACCO, she offered exchange visits to other countries products and programmes that are me a different but related insight: like Canada and within Africa where specifically suited to the women and Many female teachers don’t have they learn from other cooperatives. youths. Sheema Girls School can attest individual rights to property. This In addition, apart from capacity- to the success of these initiatives, affects their ability to process loans building, we are starting financial through their savings club. We are also from us because, even though we literacy programmes, which will working with several schools in eastern would like to help, the property is enable the sensitised women to and central Uganda. Parents are also always registered in the name of the start up profit-making activities being engaged to participate and they man, and if not, in the names of both for themselves. are appreciative. Women are also partners. This, then, requires the man being organised into saving groups, to be present if we are to take a land We are providing on-site and such as Niginas and Obubox. title as a mortgage. off-site technical support to cooperatives. They send us their But why then do we continue to see But how are UCCFS’ structures monthly returns and we analyse more success stories from men than themselves being utilised to cater the reports and give them feedback from the women? for gender equality? on areas where they are doing well The problem comes from our past The standard bylaw governing and those they need to improve history that for long denied women cooperatives is that a third of the in. Several times we do field visits

ARISE 64 • 19 and train leaders and management, Well, it is hoped, that soon the and engage the members themselves government will revive the Cooperative so as to enable them to acquire the Bank. necessary information. How is the government supporting How do you think you can be you in this drive? supported to promote this gender The government, through ministers and equality initiative? area MPs, has been very supportive. We We are working on several gender-policy have been pushing of legislation for prototypes to be used by our different cooperatives and we now have the cooperatives. We want to ensure that Institutions and Money every policy in any cooperative has Lenders Act 2016. We have seen a gender element embedded in it. the introduction of the Microfinance Perhaps ACFODE will helps to do this. Regulatory Authority and all this is aimed at creating discipline within the “ We are working Later, I have a conversation with cooperatives. The Ministry of Trade, on several Uganda Housing Cooperative’s Edward Industry and Cooperatives has been Kiyingi, who holds out the same hopes: very influential and supportive. The gender-policy SACCOs’ financial discipline is being A lot needs to come from organisations enforced by the government. prototypes like ACFODE to create the link between gender and housing. For cooperatives Recently, the government gave to be used by to appreciate the gender concerns, cooperatives a tax exemption. How all those advocating for gender is this being used to support the our different equality need to get deeper into the women? communities. In Housing Cooperatives, The ten-year tax exemption was cooperatives. We women are able to own property and not given freely. We lobbied for it. defeat all cultural prejudices that deny The government first bowed to the want to ensure them the right to own property. Coming pressure we had exerted by offering tax together of women in cooperatives has exemption to only agriculture-related that every also strengthened the fight against businesses. But we kept on pressuring gender inequality. government till we secured the ten- policy in any year exemption. We shall continue to cooperative has More insights from Mr Ashaba lobby for a permanent tax exemption Dennis: on cooperatives and this will benefit a gender element What is the UCCFS’s relationship all members. with the commercial banks? embedded in it.” We enjoy a very healthy working relationship with the commercial Dennis Ashaba, banks. When we started, we never wanted to create parallel financial Uganda Central structures. Even when we are giving money to cooperatives, we channel the Cooperative money through the banks. Our loans are also paid through the banks. Not Financial only do we have accounts with the commercial banks, but we also run link Services Ltd accounts with them. (UCCFS).

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