Less than half of Emyooga SACCOs in Fort Portal City apply for permanent registration

FORT PORTAL – Out of the 36 Emyooga SACCOs registered in Fort Portal City, only 17 of them have applied for permanent registration, according to the city principal commercial officer, Michael Karwani.

Karwani said all Emyooga SACCOs have probation certificates of which most of them expired in March this year and are required by law to apply for a permanent registration from Uganda Microfinance Regulatory Authority [UMRA].

“All Emyooga SACCOS were given up to May to submit their applications for permanent registration, however, about half of them have not applied for it,” he said.

He said SACCOs that have so far applied for permanent registration belong to categories such as; boda boda riders, mechanics, local leaders, produce dealers and PWDs among others.

Karwani said those SACCOs that have not applied for permanent registration have neither audited their businesses nor held their annual general meetings [AGMs], which are part of the requirements.

He however noted that the SACCOs also have a challenge of poor mobilisation of members, although he said they are help to organise them so that they get ready for permanent registration.

Early this year, all Emyooga SACCOs in the country were sensitised on how to apply for permanent registration and were taken through all the requirements.

Joseph Lutalo, the assistant registrar of cooperatives in the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives [MTIC] said SACCOs need to be organised in order to apply for permanent registration.

“Among the requirements for permanent registration, you need to have an audit report , have members schedule, file annual returns, minutes from previous AGM and a recommendation from the commercial officer,” Lutalo said.

He said a commercial officer can recommend either an extension of probation, permanent registration, or deregistration.

According to the chairperson Central Division journalists Omwooga SACCO, Christopher Tusiime, their SACCO has not applied for permanent registration because they failed to hold the AGM.

“As the chairperson, I tried my best to ensure that we do an audit but when we set date for our AGM, very few members turned up and we could not proceed with the meeting because we lacked quorum.  My members really disappointed me,” Tusiime said.

He however said they are praying that the deadline for applying is extended so that he can reorganise his members and apply.

Emyooga programme is a presidential initiative on wealth and job creation that was launched in August 2019 as part of the broad government strategy targeting to transform 68 percent of homesteads from subsistence to market-oriented production with the overall objective of promoting wealth and job creation.

https://thecooperator.news/fort-portal-boda-boda-association-safety-launches-app/

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