ISINGIRO – Uganda’s Vice President Jesca Alupo bought shares worth Shs 5 million and promised to buy more at Millennium SACCO 2012 Ltd.
Alupo bought shares while opening the SACCO’S new structure in Rugaga. She was invited as a Chief Guest to grace the official rebranding of Ankole Millennium SACCO which started in Ankole diocese in 2012 to Millennium SACCO 2012 Ltd in Rugaga Town Council in Isingiro district.
“I have already bought shares of Shs 5 million and that is just the beginning. In the next meeting, I will be able to add more shares. I would like to encourage everybody to have that spirit of having shares because it’s important to save,” said Alupo.
She further encouraged the SACCO top leadership to open another branch in Katakwi district to expand its membership base.
“And in our next discussion, I will initiate a conversation about having one of the branches of Millennium SACCO 2012 Ltd in Katakwi district,” said Alupo, who is also the Woman Member of Parliament for Katakwi district.
Alupo hailed Dr Fred Sheldon Mwesigwa, the Bishop of Ankole Diocese for being a development focused church leader.
“I extend my appreciation to Bishop Dr Fred Sheldon Mwesigwa of Ankole diocese for setting a good example of religious leaders’ involvement in improving the socio-economic lives of the people of Uganda instead of only concentrating on spiritual needs of the citizens in terms of human resource development,” she said.
“The establishment of Millennium SACCO 2012 Ltd is another clear demonstration that the diocese is committed to supporting our economy because as you all know our economy is private-sector led through private enterprises,” Alupo said.
Alupo was also impressed that the new SACCO branch in Rugaga will change the face of the Town Council and economic lives of the people in Isingiro district.
“SACCOs are very important grassroot institutions that bring people together irrespective of religion, tribe, clan, colour, gender and age to pull resources, to promote a savings culture and also subsequently provide loans that can assist small enterprises to grow into giant projects. Therefore, I would like to call upon all the people of Isingiro and Ankole region in general to take advantage of Millennium SACCO Ltd. services,” said Alupo.
Dr Fred Sheldon Mwesigwa confirmed that changing the SACCO name was deliberately initiated by the SACCO top leadership to become a national SACCO with intentions of becoming a bank in future.
“We have managed to change the SACCO name from Ankole Diocese Millennium SACCO to Millennium SACCO 2012 Ltd. This is in preparation for us to expand our footprint in other regions,” says Mwesigwa.
“We want to turn it into a bank in the near future so we want a simple name, not a sentence, a reason we changed it to Millennium SACCO,” he added.
Mwesigwa appealed to the Vice President to push for a reduction of the amount of money required to start a bank in Uganda.
“H.E Vice President, we are requesting you to be our ambassador to stand against the increase in capital required for a SACCO to graduate to a bank. Why should Bank of Uganda propose to increase minimum capital from Shs 24 billion to Shs 150 billion for one to start a bank? Will Ugandans ever own banks in an era where we are promoting buy Uganda, build Uganda?” Bishop Mwesigwa asked.
“Our honorable MPs, isn’t this an issue within your docket? Why should we continue relying on European banks and refuse to start our own?” he further asked.
Fred Tumwine, the SACCO Board Chairman encouraged members to embrace mobile banking to limit chances of theft and insecurity among its members.
“Some people may want to rob you when you are carrying some big sums of money. I would like to encourage you to embrace technology which makes it easy for people to transact businesses,” says Tumwine.
Millennium SACCO Ltd was established on 13th December 2012 to improve people’s livelihoods by bridging the gap between the local community and the financial sectors.
Currently, it has 7 branches employing 54 people, with total savings of Shs 6.3 billion, loan portfolio of Shs 11 billion, share capital of Shs 2.1 billion, and a total membership of 16,659 since its inception.
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