Masindi Central market vendors revive SACCO after 5-year break

Members of Masindi central market savings and credit cooperative society have revived their SACCO after a five-year break.

According to its Chairperson, James Masaba, the SACCO had collapsed after the previous leadership embezzled members’ savings worth about Shs 7m.

“The collapse was brought about by lack of accountability and transparency. We have now recruited a secretary manager who will guide us on the activities of running a cooperative,” he said.

Masaba made the remarks during the SACCO’s Annual General Meeting held at Kolping hotel in Masindi town on Friday.

According to Stella Abwooli, the Secretary, Masindi Central Vendors’ SACCO, the SACCO started in 2014 with 92 members.

“As of now the SACCO has 95 members who have renewed their membership.”

Edward Kyaligonza, a SACCO member, said that many members had in the past lost hope in renewing their membership after they had been disappointed by the previous leadership.

“A lot more still needs to be done to convince more members to join. We however, have confidence in the new leadership because so far what they have done has restored hope amongst us,” he added.

The SACCO is comprised of food handlers, food and clothes vendors, fish mongers, chicken sellers and produce sellers, among others, and is primarily involved in savings and credit and tendering out markets, among other businesses.

David Asiimwe, the Chairperson, Masindi Central Vendors Association, noted that the vendors were tasked to form a SACCO before they could be awarded a tender to manage the market.

“At the moment we are managing this market ourselves as a way of developing both ourselves and our SACCO. We are now working hard to bring back sanity to our market,,” Asiimwe explained.

He said the vendors lack adequate knowledge on how to manage their cooperative and appealed for training opportunities to be provided to members.

 “We need to be trained on how manage this SACCO, as well as financial literacy,” he appealed.

Many SACCOs were formed in Masindi in 2006 when President Museveni launched the “Prosperity for all” program.

However most of the SACCOs have remained dormant after members withdrew their interest on account of poor leadership and lack of accountability and transparency.

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