Seasoned cooperator Nathan Nandala Mafabi, is contesting to be the next Board Chairman of Uganda Cooperative Alliance (UCA).
He is buoyant about prospects of UCA under his tested leadership.
The UCA Annual General Meeting (AGM) is due on the 15th December, 2021 just under a week from now. During this General Assembly, UCA is seeking to fill the position of the Chairman amongst other vacant positions on the board.
A highly qualified certified public accountant and lawyer, Nandala has served for more than 13 years at the helm of Bugisu Cooperative Union, he also, “boasts” as the best Chairman UCA can ever have in the new term.
“I don’t need introduction, I am a Cooperator with results, at Bugisu Cooperative Union where I have been the Chairman since 2008, farmers have been getting a good price for their coffee, check everywhere I have worked, World Bank, and Ministry of Finance they will tell you that I am a man of results.”
Nandala says, he wants to continue serving Ugandans, by sharing his skills and experience and bringing unity to the sector. He vowed that his interest in UCA’s leadership had everything to do with cooperative development and warned that no one should confuse his bid with his parliamentary politics.
“For me, I know that there is politics in everything, in a family there is politics, in circumcision there is politics, in parliament there is politics. This time in UCA, it is just cooperatives. We should not mix things up, because I don’t do that and everyone knows that about me.”
Nandala comes at a time when the majority of the founder union members of UCA like Busoga Growers Cooperative Union, Banyankore Kweterana Cooperative Union, North Mbale Cooperative Union, Masaka District Growers Cooperative Union, Nyakatonzi Growers Cooperative Union, Uganda Growers Cooperative Union, Mubende district Growers Cooperative Union, Bunyoro Growers Cooperative Union, Lango Cooperative Union, and Bugisu Cooperative Union have not been involved much in the business of their own UCA, something that worries him.
Nandala is concerned about the caliber and composition of most of UCA’s current membership. He is particularly wondering why primary cooperatives have been claiming membership of the apex, when the Cooperative Act Cap 112 is categorical that an apex cooperative must only have secondary and tertiary cooperative members.
He admits that part of his interest in the Board Chairmanship of UCA is to re-engage the secondary and tertiary unions that started UCA and the ones that qualify to be members of UCA now, so that the movement can be in a better position to contribute to national development.
The BCU Chairman, has pledged to deliver the following in his 100 days at the helm of UCA by re-engaging the original members of UCA and ensuring that the primary cooperatives under all the secondary and tertiary cooperatives members of UCA are united and collaborating. He commits to organizing UCA to partner with the government to ensure that the Parish Development Model delivers to ordinary Ugandans.
“Members of Busoga Cooperative Union should know the members of West Nile Cooperative Union, and they should benefit from each other. I am going to ensure that the unions move together with the primaries, so that there is strength at all levels up to the apex.”
He scoffs at the limited capacity that UCA has exhibited in the recent past, reminiscing that when UCA was still vibrant it was a hub for well-coordinated business development and training services.
He argues that UCA right now should be leading the design of the operational manuals for procurement, accounts, human resource and others which would then be customized by the members of the cooperatives, citing an absence of technical support from the apex where his cooperative-BCU belongs.
He also vowed to promote equality amongst the members, by ensuring that UCA focuses on their socio-economic wellbeing and not individual interests.
He shared the experience of his primary cooperative in which he mentioned that members are not charged interest on loans and because of the kind of care and trust, the loans are paid on time.
Similarly, he urged cooperatives to always try and understand the objectives of their founders, arguing that when the founders are self-seeking, the cooperative can not be in position to serve the needs of the members.
Nandala pledges to work with the government to ensure that cooperatives re-establish the Cooperative Bank. He argues that, the Cooperative Bank would ensure that the financing terms are favorable for the agricultural community which is riddled by a multiplicity of weather vagaries.
“I want to ensure that we start and end the journey of having our bank returned and operational in the first 100 days. The government gave us back the Cooperative Bank already,” he said.
Relatedly, he has expressed his concern about the operations of many of the Savings and Credit Cooperatives (SACCOs- financial services cooperatives) in Uganda, most of whom he believes are not focused on accelerating the socio-economic wellbeing of members but on profit.
“Cooperatives are not profit driven entities, they are there to improve the life of the members, in fact the kind of credit that members obtain from their cooperatives must be interest free.”
Nandala has also committed to work with the government to streamline war compensation. He tasked the government to ensure equal and fair war compensation arguing that, all cooperatives in Uganda were affected by the wars in equal measure.
He wondered why there is preferential treatment in the compensation process, where other cooperatives seem to be given more priority than others. He argues that compensation should be done in a way that does not leave any cooperative behind, stating that the losses cooperatives faced happened mostly within the same period.
He also advised that the compensation fund should be a lump sum that is therefore spread to all war losing cooperatives, so that the development that is anticipated from the compensation can be realized simultaneously across the country.
When asked about the recent allegations of forgery, misappropriation as well as high staff and board turnover at UCA, he says he was not sure of the realities and until these issues are investigated, he cannot give a fair comment on them.
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