PSST Ggoobi: SACCOs in Uganda have grown to over 30,000
The number of Savings and Credit Cooperative Organisations [SACCOs] in Uganda has increased to 33,000, according to the Permanent Secretary and [PSST] Secretary to the Treasury, Ramadhan Ggoobi.
According to Ggoobi, there are 10,594 SACCOs registered under the Parish Development Model [PDM], 6,700 under Emyooga Programme and 15, 706 other registered SACCOs.
Ggoobi says government is determined to fund both the PDM SACCOs and Emyooga SACCOs every year to boost commercial agriculture, wealth, and job creation.
Government in the next budget to be read on June 14, 2023, has provided Shs 1.059 trillion to PDM SACCOs, Shs 100b to Emyaooga SACCOs that operate at the constituency level and Shs 49b to other categories of SACCOs under the Microfinance Support Centre (MSC).
Ggoobi who was appointed in July 2021 to serve in the current position is hopeful that through interventions such as the new National Business Development Framework, the capacity of SACCOs will be built so that they grow and herald Uganda’s socio-economic transformation.
He adds: Government will…continue to capitalise the Microfinance Support Centre to supply affordable finance to existing SACCOs. In addition, the government is improving the regulatory framework for SACCOs.”
He continues that Bank of Uganda [BoU] has finalized processes to regulate large SACCOs with capital above Shs 500 million and savings in excess of Shs 1 billion, even though this move has been opposed by SACCOs targeted. Some of the large SACCOs in the country include Wazalendo SACCO and Parliamentary SACCO, among others doing business upcountry, especially in western Uganda.
Those opposed to BoU regulation of large SACCOs argue that SACCOs are not commercial banks since they have a unique business model, and that instead they should be regulated by a single agency like it is done in neighbouring Kenya where SACCOs are supervised by SACCO Societies Regulatory Authority [SASRA].
Currently, SACCOs in Uganda have multiple regulators such as Uganda Microfinance Regulatory Authority [UMRA], Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives, and BoU.
Speaker, Anita Among in February pledged her support towards the harmonisation of laws governing operations of SACCOs in the country.
She was responding to a concern raised by the Board Chairperson of the Parliamentary SACCO, Robert Migadde during the organisation’s Annual General Meeting in February 2023.
Migadde pointed out that operations of SACCOs are affected by multiple supervision by the Ministry of Trade, Uganda Microfinance Regulatory Authority and the Central Bank.
“The Cooperative Societies Act places SACCOs under the management of Ministry of Trade while the tier 4 Microfinance and Moneylenders Act places big SACCOs under the management of the Bank of Uganda. On the other hand, all SACCOs are under the Uganda Microfinance Regulatory Authority,” he said then.
A Parliamentary Brief on the Cooperative Sector in Uganda as prepared by the Uhuru Institute for Social Development TUI, a social business enterprise, calls for the establishment of a regulatory authority to supervise cooperatives in the country.
https://thecooperator.news/2023-2024-budget-govt-earmarks-over-shs-1trn-for-saccos/
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