KAMPALA – The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives (MTIC) has advised the faculty and staff at Victoria University to embrace the staff savings and cooperative union as a pathway to individual economic transformation.
The guidance was given by Mr. Rogers Denis Okambo, the Deputy Registrar/Cooperatives Officer at the ministry who was a keynote speaker at the inauguration of the Victoria University Staff Savings Credit Society (VU SACCO Ltd) on Saturday, April 16, 2023.
Mr. Okambo, enumerated the processes and best practices of running a staff SACCO that include active participation of members in generating and using the revenues that run a successful SACCO.
“The highest decision making body of the SACCO is the members who exercise their rights through the Annual General Meeting. The government (ministry) does not interfere in running of the SACCOs unless members petition us and even then, we come in to give guidance,” he said.
He identified areas that the SACCO needs to pay attention to, including mobilisation of capital and savings from members, paying attention to Corporate Governance by putting in place structures required by the law, and reporting to members at the required intervals.
Dr. Harriet Mimi Uwineza, the Dean Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Victoria University was elected the Interim Chairperson of the Executive Board of the VU SACCO Ltd. Other members elected to the Interim Board include; Alex B. Atuhaire (deputy Chair); Irene Batebi (Secretary); Conan Businge (Treasurer) and Ronald Mbago (Member).
Dr. Uwineza, who has spearheaded the founding stages of the SACCO said the ultimate objective of the initiative is to achieve individual economic empowerment of members using a group collective.
“The Vice Chancellor inspired us to look into this initiative to help ourselves individually and as a group for support to better economic empowerment. We want members to be able to access finances for individual personal development at very good terms. We can be each others keeper and make Victoria University a home,” Dr. Mimi told this reporter.
Dr. Lawrence Muganga, the Vice Chancellor Victoria University implored the staff to embrace the SACCO, support its growth and use it for personal economic empowerment.
Saying he was a person with big ambitions always, he challenged the leaders of the SACCO to grow it into a multi-billion fund as soon as possible.
According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives, , the cooperative movement in Uganda currently comprises of 21,346 registered cooperative societies with an estimated 5.6 million members.
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