The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives is in the final stages and preparations for reviving the defunct Uganda Co-operative Bank.
This was revealed yesterday by the Permanent Secretary of the Trade Ministry, Geraldine Ssali Busuulwa, in which she noted that during its tenure, the bank greatly aided business owners to access loans at relatively lower interests rates.
According to Ssali, government intends to re-finance the Co-operative bank, and buy lorries and tractors for cooperative farmers.
She added that this is a remarkable step in flourishing Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) set up by farmers, and that reviving it is worth the effort.
Ssali also said the bank will greatly capitalize in aiding mostly the vulnerable and under privileged, with no start up capital and others most especially women, who face difficulties to sustain their businesses due to financial constraints.
“We want to revive Co-operative Bank, because it was vital in offering desperately needed financial help to the common man. Most people conducted their agricultural activities through outgrowers, in which you can utilise a small plot of land, for instance like four acres to grow lets say sim sim. When sim sim is processed, cooking oil is obtained. So when you group yourselves, you can hire a tractor, but just one man can find it very hard to hire one,” Said Ssali.
“This is where the bank comes in. After setting up a cooperative, the bank will lend you money for the progression of your farming activities, as a group, not as just one person, because you are regarded as people carrying out collective agriculture,” she added.
On Friday last week, State minister for Trade, Industry and Cooperatives, David Bahati said President Museveni wrote to the ministry, tasking it to revise measures on how the bank would be revived.
Appearing on the 36th annual general meeting of Lyamujungu Co-operative Financial Service Limited, at Little Litz Hotel Gardens in Kabale municipality, Bahati also stressed that government intends to institute an automated banking system, to avoid multiple lending by bank stakeholders and customers.
The President, according to Bahati, strongly believes that by reviving the Co-operative Bank, development in the country can be broadened, through enabling business owners’ access to loans at lower interest rates, as compared to commercial banks.
Uganda Co-operative Bank which collapsed in 1999, is expected to enhance the availability of affordable financing to viable projects in agriculture and micro and medium scale enterprises, hence broadening development in the country.
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