A cooperative bank, one SACCO at a time: inside the launch of the National Cooperative SACCO

At the National Cooperative Conference at UMA Grounds, Lugogo, on 18 September 2025, Trade Minister Francis Mwebesa, representing President Museveni, launched the National Cooperative Savings and Credit Society Limited (NCSCSL). The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives describes it as the first step toward Uganda's long-awaited National Cooperative Bank — an institution the movement has been trying to rebuild since the original Cooperative Bank collapsed in the 1990s.

The conference, hosted jointly by the ministry and the Uganda Cooperative Alliance (UCA), was framed as a new dawn for the sector. The new society is meant to close financing gaps for cooperatives and to provide a roadmap toward a fully licensed bank, with membership open to all registered primary and tertiary cooperatives.

The ambition is large. The early capital is not: according to the ministry, UGX 86.5m had been pledged at launch, with UCA contributing UGX 10m.

Uganda's cooperative history stretches back to 1913, when the first society was registered to give smallholder farmers a collective voice. By the 1960s, cooperatives were powering rural economies through coffee and cotton exports. Political turbulence, mismanagement and the collapse of the Cooperative Bank then nearly crippled the sector, leaving cooperatives dependent on commercial lenders that often regard agriculture as too risky.

Speaking ahead of the International Day of Cooperatives in July 2025, UCA board chairperson Johnas Tweyambe hailed the government for re-establishing the Cooperative Bank after 25 years of non-existence, while warning that it would need substantial capitalisation to extend affordable credit to cooperatives. UCA has also proposed that government funds now spread across programmes such as Emyooga, PDM and others be consolidated into a single fund and channelled through the Cooperative Bank.

The idea is not new. When an International Cooperative Alliance delegation visited Uganda in 2019, it met then Speaker Rebecca Kadaga, who had been animating discussions on cooperative taxation and the revival of the Uganda Cooperative Bank.

State Minister for Cooperatives Fredrick Ngobi Gume urged the new society to deliver cost-effective services, cut bureaucracy and put members' needs first. Keynote speaker Dr Fred Muhumuza argued that a cooperative bank must be more than a lender: it should offer knowledge, skills and tailored products that track and improve members' livelihoods, and build partnerships in areas such as health, education and transport.

The President's speech, read by Mr Mwebesa, commended growth in the number of cooperative societies from 5,000 to 46,000. The ministry's own write-up of the event, however, describes Uganda's 21,000-plus cooperatives as the backbone of jobs and incomes. The difference likely reflects registered versus active societies, but it underlines a point the movement itself makes often: reliable data on cooperatives is scarce.

For a bank-in-waiting, that data gap is a real constraint. Lending to cooperatives at scale requires knowing which ones exist, which are trading and which keep audited books. The President's speech also pointed outward, describing Pan-Africanism as the key to growing beyond Uganda's internal market into a collective market of 1.4 billion people — a reminder that cooperative unions exporting coffee and other produce will need finance that can follow them across borders. UCA, for its part, has asked for increased funding for both the ministry and the apex body, arguing that chronic underfunding limits how many communities they can reach.

The NCSCSL starts as a SACCO, which means it must first earn the trust of the very institutions it hopes to serve. Its milestones toward a full bank, as presented at the launch, run from 2025 to 2037 and beyond — an honest acknowledgement that a licensed cooperative bank is a long-term project.

Two things will decide whether it succeeds. The first is capital: Shs86.5m in pledges is a symbolic start, and the gap between that and a licensable bank is vast. The second is governance. The original Cooperative Bank's failure is still part of the movement's memory, and members will need clear evidence of professional management and independent oversight before committing serious money.

If the movement can meet both tests, Uganda's cooperatives may finally have a financial institution that understands their seasons, their collateral and their members. If not, the NCSCSL risks becoming another well-intentioned acronym.