BUKWO, November 5, 2026 — The Uganda Cooperative Alliance [UCA], in partnership with the Bank of Uganda [BoU], has sensitised farmers and small-scale business operators in Bukwo District on available financing opportunities under the Agricultural Credit Facility [ACF] and Small Business Fund [SBF], urging them to embrace commercial agriculture.
The sensitisation engagement, held on Tuesday at the Bukwo District Council Hall, brought together cooperative leaders, farmers, entrepreneurs and other stakeholders to highlight financing opportunities aimed at boosting agricultural production, expanding businesses and improving household incomes.
Dorothy Muidina Namarome, from the Publicity and Customer Support Section of the Administered Funds Department, Eastern Region, said the initiative was intended to equip farmers with information on affordable credit facilities to help them transition from subsistence to commercial farming.
“The purpose of this engagement is to sensitise farmers to move from subsistence farming to commercial farming. We want farmers to understand that there are financing opportunities available to help them expand their agricultural activities and improve their livelihoods,” Namarome said.
She said the ACF provides financing at an interest rate of 12 percent per annum, with a repayment period of up to eight years and a grace period of three years.
“Under this facility, farmers can access credit at an interest rate of 12 percent per annum, with a repayment period of up to eight years and a grace period of three years,” she explained.
Namarome said the repayment terms were designed to give farmers adequate time to establish and develop their agricultural investments before starting to repay the loans.
She said the partnership between BoU and UCA, alongside participating financial institutions, was intended to bring information about the financing programmes closer to rural communities.
“We are partnering with the Uganda Cooperative Alliance, together with participating financial institutions such as banks, to bring these products closer to the people so that farmers and other potential beneficiaries can understand and access them,” she said.
She urged cooperative leaders to use their existing structures to disseminate information about the facilities and guide members on how to access the financing.
Samuel Wakinya, a UCA board member representing Eastern Uganda, said farmers continued to face challenges in agricultural production and marketing, noting that increased production alone would not guarantee better incomes without access to reliable markets.
“We have continued to experience challenges among our farmers, especially when it comes to production and marketing. It is important that farmers are supported not only to produce but also to understand how to market their produce and benefit from their agricultural activities,” Wakinya said.
He said farmer education and training were central to UCA’s mandate, adding that farmers needed continuous guidance to improve their production, marketing and cooperative management skills.
“One of the critical areas of our mandate as Uganda Cooperative Alliance is education. We must continue training our farmers because without education and proper information, it becomes difficult for them to improve their production and marketing,” he said.
Wakinya commended the partnership with BoU, saying it had enabled UCA to extend financial information and opportunities to cooperative members, particularly those in rural communities.
“Through our partnership with the Bank of Uganda, UCA has been able to fulfil its mandate of educating and sensitising farmers. Our responsibility is to make sure that the information reaches the farmers so that they understand the available opportunities and how they can benefit from them,” he said.
He urged cooperative leaders to take the information back to their respective societies and ensure farmers at the grassroots level benefit from the available financing opportunities.
The Acting Resident District Commissioner of Bukwo, Bernard Basiriwa, commended BoU and UCA for taking the sensitisation campaign to the district, saying it provided an opportunity for financial institutions to understand the challenges communities face in accessing financial services.
“We want to thank the Bank of Uganda for coming down to the ground here in Bukwo to interact with our farmers and understand the challenges they face when accessing these financial services. This is important because it helps bring services closer to the people who need them most,” Basiriwa said.
He expressed concern over the low number of cooperative societies in the district, attributing the situation partly to inadequate awareness and limited understanding of the benefits of cooperatives.
“We have very few cooperatives in Bukwo, partly because many people have limited knowledge and have not received enough education about the importance of forming and joining cooperative societies,” he said.
Basiriwa called for sustained sensitisation to encourage farmers to form and join cooperatives, saying organised groups could help members access financial services, undertake collective economic activities and benefit from development programmes.
Bukwo District LCV Vice Chairman Nicholas Kamuchaki also raised concern over the limited number of Savings and Credit Cooperative Organisations [SACCOs] in the district, calling for increased community mobilisation to strengthen financial inclusion.
Kamuchaki said more active SACCOs were needed to enable communities to access financial services through organised savings and credit structures.
He also cited government programmes, including the Parish Development Model [PDM], Emyooga, the Youth Livelihood Programme [YLP] and the Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Programme [UWEP], as interventions designed to support different categories of Ugandans.
“We have several government programmes, including PDM, Emyooga, the Youth Livelihood Programme and the Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Programme, which are intended to support our people economically. However, we need to create more awareness so that communities understand these programmes and know how to benefit from them,” Kamuchaki said.
He said the limited number of SACCOs in Bukwo required deliberate efforts to mobilise residents into organised groups that could take advantage of available financial opportunities and government development initiatives.
“One of the challenges we have in Bukwo is that we still have few SACCOs. We need to encourage our people to come together, form organised groups and embrace the available financial programmes to improve their economic wellbeing,” he added.
Kamuchaki also called for stronger collaboration between local government leaders, cooperative organisations and financial institutions to ensure information about financing opportunities reaches communities at the grassroots.
The engagement comes amid efforts to expand access to affordable financing for rural communities seeking to increase agricultural production, adopt modern farming methods, improve value addition and participate in commercial agriculture.
In Bukwo, where agriculture remains a major source of household livelihoods, access to affordable credit could help farmers expand their enterprises, improve productivity and participate more effectively in agricultural value chains.
Through their partnership, BoU and UCA seek to increase awareness of administered financing programmes and improve access to information on available credit facilities.
The stakeholders urged farmers, cooperative leaders and small-scale business operators to translate the information shared into action by exploring the available financing opportunities and investing in productive economic activities.
https://thecooperator.news/kagadi-bou-and-uca-strengthen-farmers-access-to-acf-and-sbf/
Buy your copy of thecooperator magazine from one of our country-wide vending points or an e-copy on emag.thecooperator.news
-
-
-
-
