For credit and savings cooperative organizations throughout Uganda, the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Cooperatives has implemented a new digital registration procedure. Positive comments on this development have come from a variety of cooperative activity participants.
At a debut event on Thursday in Mbarara City, the Cooperatives Registry Management Information System was introduced.
The Ministry’s Head of ICT, Mary Amumpaire Mwesigwa, underlined the importance of this switch from manual to computerized registration procedures. She emphasized how the new framework guarantees cooperative societies faster and more equitable access to services. These services include e-certification of documents, e-reservation of cooperative names, and mobile money transfers. According to Mwesigwa, these services are now perfectly integrated into the Ministry’s whole service delivery chain, from cooperative society management to registration.
Geraldine Ssali, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Cooperatives, emphasized during the inaugural event how the system’s development is in line with Uganda’s National Vision 2040. This vision highlights ICT’s relevance as a major opportunity for the nation’s economic change. Ssali emphasized how the new system will support cooperatives by improving their ability to engage in value chain activities, group dynamics, and entrepreneurship—in particular, joint marketing initiatives.
The Mbarara Grapes Farmers Cooperative’s chairperson, Alex Asiimwe, expressed gratitude for the switch to a digital system. He made the point that cooperators found it inconvenient to have to travel to Kampala in order to file annual returns and alter the cooperative bylaws. Asiimwe also emphasized the difficulties and time-consuming nature of manual file retrieval.
The head of Rwanyamahembe SACCO’s ICT department, Allan Mbabazi, emphasized the cost of commuting to Kampala for cooperative operations. He mentioned that cooperatives would shell out large amounts of money—more than a million shillings—to do tasks at the Ministry.
Nonetheless, cooperator Claire Kasheija requested Ministry representatives and Commercial officers to train SACCO representatives and cooperative board members. She also recommended giving them internet-connected devices and PCs to help with the new system’s deployment.
The Uganda Cooperative Alliance’s secretary general, Ivan Asiimwe, expressed hope for the digitization of cooperative registration. He underlined how this development would make it easier for the Uganda Cooperative Bank to resurrect and allow Ugandans who are members of cooperatives to save more money for investments in self-development initiatives.
