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September 22, 2025
By Elijah Khisa
KAMPALA
The minister of trade industry and cooperatives [MTIC] Francis Mwebesa has congratulated all the cooperators for struggling to achieve the much-anticipated National cooperatives savings and credit society Ltd, a precursor of the National Cooperative Bank which became the cooperators owned Bank.
Mwebesa made the remarks yesterday while representing president Yoweri Museveni during the National Cooperatives conference 2025 at UMA grounds Lugogo under the theme, ‘Driving inclusive and sustainable livelihoods through cooperatives for a better world’
The president congratulated the UCA board, ministries, departments and agencies of government [MDAs] and all stakeholders, for their efforts which have given birth to the Bank of which they must work as a team to safeguard its interest.
The state minister for Cooperatives Fredrick Ngobi Gume and the board of the Uganda cooperative Alliance [UCA] collectively appreciated all the efforts of everyone for making the two-decade long drought dream come into fruition.
The UCA general secretary CPA Ivan Assiimwe pointed that the Cooperators in Uganda could soon have access to cheap and appropriate financing after the government this formal inauguration of the society which is precursor to the revival of the defunct Cooperative Bank whose assets were taken over by the Bank of Uganda [BoU] in May 1999.
The Cooperative Bank was closed on 19 May 1999, by the late Charles Kikonyogo, the governor of the Bank of Uganda at that time. The reasons given for its closure were “inadequate capitalization” and “insolvency to the tune of Shs 4.8 billion, as of December 31, 1998.
