Challenges to success of SACCOS   By Vision Reporter   When the Government rolled out SACCOs, it was not advancing microfinance to Ugandans for the first time. In the 1990s, there was the Entandikwa credit scheme and the Youth Enterprise Scheme (YES) that collapsed due to maladministration. The Government lost sh9b under Entandikwa because beneficiaries thought it was a ‘thank-you token’ for their continued allegiance to the National Resistance Movement (NRM) government. “Many people registered not to be (SACCO) members, but to get free money,” says Charles Oleny Ojok, an MP. “They thought the NRM government was thanking them for voting it back into power in 2006.” “But prosperity for all is different,” says Ruth Nankabirwa, the microfinance state minister. “Anyone who gets a loan has to pay back or end up in jail.” Robert Ssebunya (MP, Kyadondo North) noted that in Muwama, there was no operational commercial bank or microfinance institution yet few people were members of South Mawokota SACCO. “It is us (Baganda) who cry and curse NRM for not helping us fight poverty,” he says. “But when SACCOs came, other regions embraced it and they are benefiting at our expense.” SACCOs have also registered minimal success due to dubious organisations that fleeced unsuspecting people. A case in point is Kiboga, where the National Council of Small Business Organisation (NCUSIBO) impersonated UCSCU, reaping residents of their millions. Kiboga district commercial officer, Jackson Katusiime, says: “Even when the genuine ones came, people refused to join.” The absence of an enabling law regulating SACCOs left many people at the mercy of quacks. Many SACCOs were also formed by politicians who used their positions to get loans that they did not repay, causing the collapse of many SACCOs. MPs pointed out South Mawokota SACCO whose chairman is former Mawokota MP, Henry Mutebi Kityo. Kityo is the director of the Microfinance Support Center (MSC) and chairman of South Mawokota SACCO. MPs asked Kityo to forfeit one of his positions over conflict of interest. SACCOs have emerged as vehicles to turn around the fortunes of Ugandans. To achieve this, however, frugal financial management and accountability is needed to avoid corruption that plagues the country.