Uganda Peoples’ Congress (UPC) party has called upon government to consider reviving the defunct Cooperative Unions so as to deliver the country from the current economic crisis.
The call was made by the party spokesperson, Michael Osinde while addressing the media at the party headquarters at Uganda House in Kampala.
The country has prepared to commemorate the 24th UN International Day of Cooperatives that will be celebrated on Saturday, July 7 at Civil Services College, Jinja.
Celebrations will be held under the theme ‘Sustainable Consumption and Production of goods and services’.
Osinde said that the UPC government under the leadership of Dr. Apollo Milton Obote is on record for having for having established a number of cooperatives in the country.
“We should note that our key achievements under cooperatives have been wiped out at an alarming rate minus a viable substitution or alternative,” said the UPC party Spokesperson, Michael Osinde Orach while addressing the media in Kampala.
Osinde said that at the peak of the cooperative movement, the country had both Primary and Secondary Cooperatives societies that served the interests of an ordinary farmer very well.
“As we speak today, the numerous primary cooperatives societies that were all over the country only Bugisu Cooperative Union (BCU) has managed to wither the storm,” Osinde said.
Osinde noted that the heavy infrastructure that had been established to empower the Cooperative movement like cooperative Bank, Cooperative Training College in Kigumba, Uganda Cooperative Transport Union (UCTU) and its ultra-modern, mechanical workshop all were left to go to waste.
“The ordinary farmers were left to battle with the market forces which market forces are ever reflected with increasing prices of farming implements”.
He noted that it is so sad that currently, the interest rate on loans/credit are ever high. The experiment of NAADS and SACCOS has not registered success like the previous primary and secondary societies they replaced.
The party has thus appealed to government to consider reviving cooperative unions in the country to save the struggling economy.