Achieving Prosperity for All through SACCOs

Poverty alleviation strategies such as the Medium Term Competitiveness Strategy (MTCS) and Plan for Modernization of Agriculture (PMA) identified access to financial services to the poor as a key factor in poverty eradication.

Government focus between 1997 and 2005 was upon instituting a conducive policy, legal and regulatory environment to increase access to financial services .It also required a redefinition of government' role from direct services delivery to an enabler of private sector to play a leading role by investing in areas that were costly.

In 2005, President Museveni made country wide tours and established that poverty at the household level was escalating despite the numerous government interventions such as Universal Primary Education, Provision of safe water, Uganda Immunization Programme (UINIP), free health care and more recently Universal Secondary Education.

As a result, Prosperity for All (PFA) as a major policy intervention for enhancing household incomes was incorporated in the NRM party Manifesto of 2006.

The overall coordination of PFA implementation is under the office of the vice president.

PFA is built on 4 major pillars namely;

(a) Production and Productivity;

(b) Value Addition and Marketing;

(c) Establishment of community Information Systems; and

(d) Rural Financial Services.

To achieve prosperity through increasing financial services, Government developed the Rural Financial Services Strategy (RFSS) to guide the development of the financial service delivery in rural areas.

The strategy puts emphasis on savings, credit and investment in productive activities to improve production and processing for value addition, as well as market access as the precursor for prosperity.