Hon. Fred Ngobi Guma , the state Minister for cooperatives , has urged all stakeholders to encourage Farmers work together in groups so as to benefit from their produce.
Hon. Fred Ngobi Guma addressing the Press at Esella Hotel on Monday.
At the official openning of Commercial officers training , held at Esella Hotel in Najjeera, Guma noted that its unfair for farmers to sell off their produce in raw material form to businessmen who earn more profits after processing them , thus leaving farmers in poverty.
“As government we are going to help you help farmers eliminate middle men who always cheat them. During harvesting period the produce prices tend to be low , so we want to introduce storage facilities where farmers can store their produce issued with receipts which can be used as collateral (accepted by banks) incase they need any financial support.”
The minister also noted that the training of Commercial officers is very key because most of them have lack enough knowledge on Cooperatives which makes it hard for them to supervise their operations.
“We promise as government that very soon we are going to solve the transportation problem which has been raised by these officers. We shall procure for them motorcycles and Motor vehicles to ensure that they can transverse the field easily.”
Some of the participants with Minister and their facilitators
He further expressed the need of putting in place Cooperative banks for farmers to get easy access to credit facilities.
Hon.Wamukuyu Mudimi , Bulambuli County Member of Parliament and one of the cooperatives head , on addressing Commercial officers , noted that Cooperatives in the country need to have good laws inorder for the members to benefit from them.
“Politics is one of the viruses killing the proper operation of cooperatives because most people with political agenda tend to fight visionary leaders with in. There is a need to have a special workshop for Members of Parliament to gain more knowledge about Cooperatives so that they can discuss related business from an informed point.”
Also noted that these regional meetings help the commercial officers to share knowledge , experience, challenges and solutions to problems they face during their work.
Ivan Asiimwe , UCA Secretary General
Ivan Asiimwe , the General Secretary of Uganda cooperative Alliance (UCA) ,
an Umbrella body for all registered co-operatives in the country revealed that the workshop was organized for capacity building of 90 percent of the Commercial officers who didn’t study Cooperatives.
“The success of the Cooperatives in 1960s and 1970s was as a result of good policies of the time where it was a requirement for all commercial officers to be oriented on cooperatives and must have attended a course at the cooperative College in Kigumba which no longer exists.”
Assimwe also called upon legislators and other stakeholders to push for a single law and regulator for Cooperatives in the country as it is in Kenya.
The three day workshop which kicked off on Monday was organized by Uganda Cooperative Alliance, it attracted over 100 Commercial officers at all levels from Buganda and Busoga, Members of Parliament and other partners.
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