Uganda Prisons SACCO loan book rise 31% in 2021
KAMPALA – Uganda Prisons Service (UPS) Savings and Credit Cooperative Society [SACCO] saw a growth in loans to members in 2021 as they rose by 31% to Shs 7.3 billion from Shs 5.5bln that members took in 2020, according to the SACCO’s manager Alex Opiny.
Opiny disclosed the figures days ago during the SACCO’s 14th annual general meeting held at the Prison Academy and Training School in Kampala, saying that the Covid-19 pandemic affected business during the financial year 2020/2021.
He attributed the growth in the loans to borrowing by members as the government opened the economy and the schools prepared to open after the lockdown restrictions were lifted.
He said UPS’s SACCO membership increased to 11, 266 in 2021 from 10,257, a 9.8 percent growth.
On the other hand, he said, shares of the SACCO rose by 8 percent to 457,107 in 2021 from 423,242 in 2020.
However, the SACCO’s Chairperson Wilson Magomu told members deserters went with Shs37m in loans.
“We lost over Shs 37m to deserters in the financial year 2020/2021,” he said adding that the SACCO recovered Shs20m from the deserters’ savings, leaving a net loss of Shs 17m.
Magomu said the deserters’ assets could be attached to recover the money. He said the SACCO could also approach the new employers of the deserters so as they remit the deserters’ loans to the SACCO.
He said the deserters go to the Arab nations to work. About 200 wardens desert the Force every year, officials said.
https://thecooperator.news/how-saccos-came-to-dominate-ugandas-cooperative-movement/
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