By Zurah Nakabugo.
Workers have been advised to form and join Cooperatives in order to fight poverty in their homes since it helps them borrow money at low interest rates than banks, which leads to economic development.
“I encourage all workers in Uganda, to form Cooperatives, which can help them borrow money at low interest rate in case of any crisis and pandemics like Covid-19,” Workers Member of Parliament Hon. Dr Abdul Byakatonda, the Workers’ MP said.
He told the Workers’ Eye in an interview that forming a cooperative union and informing the Ministry of Trade and Cooperatives to process one’s documents kick starts the process.” Cooperatives improve the life style of workers financially and socially. Some Cooperatives like Wazelendo, Teachers and Police Saccos are doing very well,” Byakatonda said.
He said:” “The only way for workers to benefit from government programmes is by being organized and forming registered cooperatives”. “This makes it easy for them to get development funds from government since it gives money to organized groups but not individuals,” he said.
Hon. Byakatonda said, Cooperatives help workers to have the culture of saving and credit, which ensures they form small enterprises for economic development.
He said, cooperatives are vehicle for developments, according to International Labour Organisation (ILO) convention 193, since workers are supposed to form Cooperatives at their workplace for better development.
“Since cooperative loans, have very low interest rates, it will help workers have money for investments, instead of looking for salary loans and advances which have high interest rates. So once, we have such investments, workers can be helped get more money for their developments,” Byakatonda said.
He said, in his manifesto, he asked all workers of Uganda to form cooperatives and gave of them money to start. He also promised to follow up the formed Cooperatives with General Secretaries who are the accounting officers to ensure the cooperatives are moving forward.
“I gave money to some workers’ unions like hotels and fisheries unions to start their projects like seedlings, tree planting, candle and shoe making projects. However, the issue is not mainly on money but we are aiming at developing skills. And at the moment, all women of COFTU and NOTU have developed these skills,” Hon Byakatonda said.
Cooperatives also work as a fall back positions, where all workers get loans for investments. He said:” when workers have lost their jobs as it has occurred during COVID-19 pandemic especially teachers who lost their jobs.
He encouraged members to be careful with committee members in their Cooperatives since some leaders who use mobile money deposits, can easily disappear with members’ savings.
“When choosing leaders, you must instill democracy and integrity so that people look for collective decisions when choosing cooperative leaders. Challenges can be solved by members opening up a bank account and deposit their savings in the banks, savings books is the safest way to keep member money,” he says.
Hon Byakatonda also said, he expects to handover the two double cabin vehicles he purchased for NOTU and COFTU unions before end of December 2021.
“We shall call all the General Secretaries (GS) and other leaders to witness the handover of these double cabin vehicles. I advise all the General Secretaries to encourage members to join cooperatives in order to improve their economic developments in the country,” he said.
The legislator advised the leaders of NOTU and COFTU to avoid abusing the double cabin pickups and always assign to them work that is connected to the unions and not individuals.
Co-operative society is a voluntary association of individuals having common needs who join hands for the achievement of common economic interest. Its aim is to serve the interest of the poorer sections of society through the principle of self-help and development.
Cooperatives are potential game changers in Uganda’s aspiration to transform itself from a peasant to a modern middle-income country by 2040.
In line with the Sustainable Development Goals’ theme of “leaving no one behind”, cooperatives provide a vehicle through which the predominantly rural workforce and the dynamic urban sector can be integrated into Uganda’s transformation agenda ■
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