Our partners in the movement

Uganda Cooperative Alliance

The Uganda Cooperative Alliance is the national apex body for cooperatives of every type in Uganda, established in 1961. Under the Cooperative Societies Act it advises government on cooperative policy, represents societies in dealings with the state, and provides education, training and advocacy. It is Uganda's full member of the International Cooperative Alliance and speaks for the movement at national and international level.

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Uganda Cooperative Savings and Credit Union

UCSCU is the national apex organisation for savings and credit cooperative societies (SACCOs) in Uganda, established in 1972 and based in Kampala. It offers member SACCOs training, advocacy and governance support and runs a central liquidity facility, acting as a 'credit union for credit unions'. It has also built and rolled out a shared core banking system for SACCOs.

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UHOCU

Uganda Housing Cooperative Union

UHOCU is the umbrella union for housing cooperatives in Uganda, headquartered at Ngabo-Lukomera in Luwero District. It supports member cooperatives with cooperative development, access to land, alternative low-cost building technologies, networking and advocacy. Members also run income-generating projects, including urban farming, so households can raise incomes and save collectively towards decent, affordable homes.

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Uganda Microfinance Regulatory Authority

UMRA is the statutory regulator for Tier 4 financial institutions in Uganda, created under the Tier 4 Microfinance Institutions and Money Lenders Act, 2016. It licenses and supervises SACCOs, non-deposit-taking microfinance institutions, self-help groups and money lenders, sets prudential and consumer-protection standards, and maintains registers of licensed operators to protect savers across the country.

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BoU

Bank of Uganda

The Bank of Uganda is the country's central bank, established in 1966 and headquartered in Kampala. It conducts monetary policy, issues the Uganda shilling and supervises Tier 1 to Tier 3 financial institutions, including commercial banks, credit institutions and deposit-taking microfinance institutions. It also oversees the national payment systems on which mobile money and SACCO transactions run.

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Uganda Warehouse Receipt System Authority

UWRSA is the Ugandan authority established under the Warehouse Receipt System Act, 2006 to regulate structured commodity trading. It licenses and inspects warehouses and oversees the electronic warehouse receipt system, which lets farmers and cooperatives deposit graded produce and use the receipts as collateral for inventory credit or sell them on, improving prices and access to finance.

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SASRA

Sacco Societies Regulatory Authority (Kenya)

SASRA is Kenya's state regulator for savings and credit cooperatives, established under the Sacco Societies Act, 2008. It licenses and supervises deposit-taking and specified non-withdrawable-deposit-taking Saccos, enforcing capital, liquidity and governance standards. Its model of dedicated Sacco supervision is often cited in regional debates on how Uganda and other East African states should regulate cooperative finance.

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Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives is the Ugandan government ministry responsible for trade, industrial development and the cooperative sector. Through its Department of Cooperative Development and the Registrar of Cooperatives it registers, inspects and audits cooperative societies under the Cooperative Societies Act and leads national cooperative policy, including efforts to revive and strengthen the movement.

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MSC

Microfinance Support Centre

The Microfinance Support Centre is a government-owned company set up in 2001 to channel affordable credit, grants and business development services to organised groups, SACCOs, farmers and small enterprises across Uganda. It offers conventional and Islamic finance and manages the Emyooga programme; by mid-2021 it had mobilised 6,748 Emyooga SACCOs and disbursed UGX 205 billion.

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PDM

Parish Development Model Secretariat

The Parish Development Model is Uganda's flagship programme, launched in 2022, to move subsistence households into the money economy, with the parish as the main delivery unit. Its national secretariat sits in the Ministry of Local Government and coordinates the seven PDM pillars, including the Parish Revolving Fund disbursed through parish-based PDM SACCOs.

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UDB

Uganda Development Bank

Uganda Development Bank is the country's state-owned development finance institution, established in 1972 and based in Kampala. It provides long-term loans, equity and advisory support to agriculture, agro-processing, manufacturing, tourism and infrastructure projects, and channels government-backed facilities into agribusiness, processing and value addition across the country.

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MAAIF

Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries

MAAIF is the Ugandan government ministry responsible for crops, livestock and fisheries policy, headquartered in Entebbe. It sets agricultural policy, runs extension and disease-control services, and since the 2024 rationalisation of agencies has absorbed functions of bodies such as the Uganda Coffee Development Authority, making it central to the farm value chains where most Ugandan cooperatives operate.

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WSACCO

Wazalendo Savings and Credit Cooperative Society

The savings and credit cooperative of Uganda's defence community, serving UPDF soldiers, reservists, their families and Ministry of Defence staff. Registered in September 2005 and headquartered in Kiwatule, Kampala, WSACCO pools members' savings to fund loans and now runs a network of 19 branches across the country, making it one of Uganda's largest SACCOs.

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PES

Police Exodus SACCO

The savings and credit cooperative for officers of the Uganda Police Force, set up in 2007 by a resolution of the Police Council to improve officer welfare. With roughly 42,000 members, most of them junior ranks from constable to inspector, the Kampala-based SACCO has lent members about Shs75 billion, and its deductions have drawn parliamentary scrutiny.

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EBO SACCO

Ebirungi Biruga Omututu Cooperative Society

A rural savings and credit cooperative in Mbarara district, south-western Uganda, started by farmers in 1995 and registered as a SACCO in 2002. EBO offers savings, loans and farmer training to a largely agricultural membership, reported at about 16,000 members across five branches, and has been an Oikocredit partner since 2017.

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KYAPS

Kyamuhunga People's SACCO

A community savings and credit cooperative headquartered at Butare-Kyamuhunga in Bushenyi district, western Uganda. KYAPS began in 1998 in Kyamuhunga sub-county as a limited company and converted to a SACCO in 2004 so it could take members' voluntary savings, later extending its reach into neighbouring Katerera sub-county in Bunyaruguru.

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NFS

Nyakyera Farmers SACCO

A farmer-owned savings and credit cooperative in Ntungamo district, south-western Uganda, serving members in Nyakyera and Rukoni sub-counties. It began financial operations in August 2002 with 100 members and has since grown to more than 1,600 individual and institutional members, the largest being the Nyakyera Area Cooperative Enterprise.

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SFS

Sebei Farmers SACCO

A farmer-focused savings and credit cooperative in the Sebei sub-region of eastern Uganda, founded in 2015 by 31 farmers. It now counts over 5,000 members across Kapchorwa, Kween and Bulambuli districts, offering agricultural loans, market linkages and climate-smart sunflower support, and runs a 1,000-tonne aggregation store in Kween.

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Walimu SACCO

Walimu Teachers' Cooperative Savings and Credit Union

Uganda's national savings and credit union for teachers, linking district teachers' SACCOs across the country. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives has injected about Shs27 billion into the union, and a new board was tasked in 2026 with recovering Shs11 billion in defaulted loans and reviving dormant SACCOs, since only 39 of 385 are active.

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BCU

Bugisu Cooperative Union

A farmer-owned coffee federation founded in July 1954 by growers led by Samson Kitutu, headquartered on Pallisa Road in Mbale, eastern Uganda. BCU collects, processes and markets Arabica grown on the volcanic slopes of Mount Elgon, with coffee farmers organised in primary societies across the Bugisu sub-region electing its board.

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ACPCU

Ankole Coffee Producers Cooperative Union

A Fairtrade and organic-certified Robusta coffee union based in Sheema, near Ishaka on the Mbarara-Kasese highway in western Uganda. Founded in 2006 by ten primary societies, ACPCU buys, grades and exports members' coffee and now provides a market for more than 9,000 smallholder producers across over 20 affiliated cooperatives.

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MCU

Masaka Cooperative Union

One of Uganda's traditional coffee unions, registered in 1951 by growers in the greater Masaka sub-region of central Uganda. After collapsing during the insurgencies of the 1970s and 1980s, the union is being revived: it has reopened 86 of its former primary societies and received Shs6 billion from government toward a Shs17 billion debt owed to it.

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BKCU

Banyankole Kweterana Cooperative Union

A historic coffee cooperative union based in Mbarara, set up in 1958 by primary societies across the Ankole region of south-western Uganda. Weakened by war, it was revived in 2009 and reports around 350 member societies with some 105,000 individual farmers, offering extension services and marketing Robusta and Arabica coffee.

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LCU

Lango Cooperative Union

A cotton-marketing union for the Lango sub-region of northern Uganda, formed in the 1950s by cotton farmers and once grouping 144 primary societies. It collapsed in the 1980s amid cotton price swings and lost property, and its leaders and community members have since pursued war-loss compensation and plans to revive its societies around Lira.

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OCGCU

Okoro Coffee Growers Cooperative Union

A farmer-owned coffee union headquartered in Paidha town, Zombo district, in Uganda's West Nile region. Its affiliated primary societies span Zombo, Nebbi and Arua districts, and a 2014 to 2016 capacity project led by We Effect positioned the union as the central point for coffee processing, value addition and marketing in the region.

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BGCU

Busoga Growers Cooperative Union

A coffee and cotton cooperative union for the Busoga sub-region of eastern Uganda, established in 1954 to pool growers and strengthen their bargaining power. At its peak it owned houses in Jinja, a coffee plant at Namulesa and a ginnery in Kaliro, but after years of mismanagement it was acquired by Agroways Limited in 2015.

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BJCU

Bukonzo Joint Cooperative Union

A smallholder Arabica coffee union in Kasese district on the Rwenzori Mountains of western Uganda. It started in 1999 as a rural microfinance society and grew into a coffee cooperative of roughly 1,500 farmer members, winning the SCAA Sustainability Award in 2015 for its Gender Action Learning System work on equal household participation.

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BOCU

Bukonzo Organic Farmers Cooperative Union

An organic Arabica coffee union in the Kasese region of the Rwenzori Mountains, western Uganda. It grew from a group of six organic farmers into a union of 13 primary cooperatives with more than 3,000 smallholder members, and has worked with UK lender Shared Interest since 2014, alongside beekeeping and savings-group activities.

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Gumutindo

Gumutindo Coffee Cooperative Enterprise

A Mbale-based specialty coffee cooperative on Mount Elgon in eastern Uganda, founded in 1998 by former staff and members of the Bugisu Cooperative Union. Its name is a local word for quality. Gumutindo exports washed Arabica under organic and Fairtrade terms for about 7,000 farmers organised in ten community-based societies.

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KCFCS

Kibinge Coffee Farmers Cooperative Society

A Robusta coffee cooperative in Kibinge, Bukomansimbi district, central Uganda, about 150 km from Kampala. It grew from a farmers' association formed in 1995, became a member-owned cooperative in 2009 and was Fairtrade certified in 2011, and in 2014 it was named Best Small Producer Organisation in Africa at the first Fairtrade Awards.

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UCCCU

Uganda Crane Creameries Cooperative Union

A dairy cooperative union in south-western and mid-western Uganda that brings together district dairy unions to collect, bulk and process members' milk. It groups about 20,000 farmers organised in some 140 primary cooperatives and has pursued its own processing plant in Mbarara, with plans to add UHT milk and yoghurt to its product line.

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NGCU

Nyakatonzi Growers Cooperative Union

A cotton cooperative union in Kasese district, western Uganda, serving growers on the plains below the Rwenzori Mountains. It received support from a 2011 to 2013 We Effect project to strengthen its member societies, and its manager Adam Bwambale has warned in 2025 that erratic rains and low prices are squeezing Kasese cotton farmers.

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WGCU

Wamala Growers Cooperative Union

A long-standing growers' union named after Lake Wamala and based in Mityana, central Uganda. It was one of the 33 regional unions in the Uganda National Co-operative Union and today reports 168 primary growers' societies, handling mainly coffee and maize, with extension programmes, a coffee processing factory and a maize mill.

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KGCU

Kigezi Growers Cooperative Union

A coffee processing and marketing union for the Kigezi sub-region of south-western Uganda, registered on 13 November 1961 and now based in Rukungiri. Of its original 71 primary societies, 27 remain active, and the union received part of a Shs3 billion war-loss compensation that helped fund a commercial building commissioned by the cooperatives ministry.

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UCTU

Uganda Cooperatives Transport Union

A transport cooperative formed in 1973 as a development arm of the national cooperative movement to haul farmers' produce and bulk inputs between district unions, marketing boards and ports. Based in Kawempe, Kampala, where it built a vehicle workshop, UCTU has been undergoing a government-backed revival with new trucks after liberalisation eroded its market.

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NDCS

Nyakahita Dairy Co-operative Society

A dairy farmers' cooperative in Kiruhura district, part of south-western Uganda's cattle corridor. It brings together 128 farmers who share a guaranteed market for their milk, and financing from the Uganda Development Bank has helped members modernise their farms, raise milk output and move toward value-added products such as yoghurt, ghee and cheese.

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International Cooperative Alliance

The International Cooperative Alliance, founded in London in 1895 and now based in Brussels, is the global federation of the cooperative movement. It is custodian of the Statement on the Cooperative Identity, including the seven cooperative principles, and represents member organisations from more than 100 countries before the United Nations and other international bodies.

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ICA-Africa

ICA-Africa

ICA-Africa is the African regional office of the International Cooperative Alliance, based in Nairobi, Kenya. It brings together national cooperative apexes and federations across the continent, including the Uganda Cooperative Alliance, to promote the cooperative identity, push for supportive policy and legislation, and coordinate regional programmes, research and the African cooperative ministerial conferences.

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ACCOSCA

African Confederation of Cooperative Savings and Credit Associations

ACCOSCA is the continental umbrella body for savings and credit cooperatives in Africa, founded in 1968 and headquartered in Nairobi. It represents national SACCO apexes, including Uganda's, and works on governance, standards, training, advocacy and inter-lending. Its annual SACCO Congress, Africa's main gathering of the credit union movement, rotates between member countries.

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World Council of Credit Unions

The World Council of Credit Unions is the global trade association and development agency for credit unions, founded in 1970 and headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin. It advocates for credit-union-friendly regulation worldwide, sets prudential standards such as the PEARLS monitoring system, and runs technical assistance programmes that have supported SACCO development in East Africa.

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Cooperatives Europe

Cooperatives Europe is the European regional organisation of the International Cooperative Alliance, established in 2006 and based in Brussels. It represents cooperative federations across sectors from banking to agriculture, lobbies European institutions on cooperative policy, and coordinates international development partnerships linking European cooperatives with counterparts in Africa and elsewhere.

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International Labour Organization – Cooperatives Unit

The ILO's Cooperatives Unit works within the UN labour agency in Geneva to promote cooperatives and the wider social and solidarity economy as a route to decent work. It supports governments on cooperative law and policy under ILO Recommendation No. 193 (2002) on the Promotion of Cooperatives, and produces research, statistics and training tools used across Africa.

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We Effect

We Effect, formerly the Swedish Cooperative Centre, is a development organisation founded in 1958 by the Swedish cooperative movement. It backs member-owned farmer organisations, savings groups and housing cooperatives in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe, and has long supported Ugandan cooperative unions, SACCOs and housing cooperatives through its East Africa programme.

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