Africa-Press – Uganda. The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Trade, Cooperatives and Industry, Ms Geraldine Ssali, has said that the digitalisation of cooperatives marks a critical journey in bringing back the Uganda Cooperative Bank but also open up markets.
In her address during the national launch of the Cooperative Registry Management Information System (CRMIS) in Mbarara City on Thursday, Ms Ssali said the digitalisation of cooperatives makes an important journey towards the revival of the Cooperative bank.
The bank that was established in 1963 to serve the interests of cooperative unions and societies was closed on May 19, 1999 by Bank of Uganda over inadequate capitalisation and insolvency.
“One of the things this system is going to do for us is prepare us for ownership of our own financial services as you know we have the cooperative bank which we would like to bring back into operation, we had one before, but there is no way we could access credit services in meaningful manner if we are not organised sector,” Ms Ssali said.
She said that the digitalisation of cooperatives will help in getting data from all cooperatives which will be key in bringing back this bank.
Ms Ssali also noted that digitalisation will help them in regulating and stabilising the prices of farmers’ produce through the ware housing system which will be tied to the cooperative bank- adding that it will also open a window for co-operators to access markets.
“This digitisation system will help us in the value chain process, we will be able to capture who is producing what, be it cocoa, coffee, vanilla or corn, then we will link them to markets. If there is a market internally or outside the country we will be able to know who to contact,” she said.
Mr Ivan Asiimwe, the general secretary Uganda Cooperative Alliance (UCA) who is also chairing the committee for the revival of the Uganda Cooperative bank said the digitalisation of cooperatives becomes important in this journey.
“It’s like going to cut a tree with an axe and find the wind has already done the job, this system has come on time and now establishing the bank will be easier since the pillars from the real members of the cooperatives up to the topmost will be already digitalised. For you to have a bank you need to digitalise your system,” said Mr Asiimwe.
Mr Asiimwe added that the system is going to help co-operators on saving both on time and money, as these would initially be required to travel to Kampala to transact and formalise their operations and businesses.
“The Cooperatives and Societies Act requires to register a company you have to go to the registrar who sits in Kampala, the same as filling Annual General meeting returns, amending by-laws. Imagine a person travelling from Kisoro to Kampala with his committee and at times finds the registrar is not there, all this expense. But now a person can sit on his computer and do all this in 30 minutes,” Mr Asiimwe noted.
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