Nyakyera SACCO

Nyakyera Farmers SACCO is located in Ntungamo District in Uganda and serving members in Nyakyera and Rukoni sub-county. The SACCO started its finance operations in August 2002, with only 100 members, providing microfinance services, providing loans and collecting savings deposits. Today the SACCO has over 1679 members and assets reached UGX 740,484,929 (app. € 217,500). Nyakyera Farmer SACCO has both individual as well as institutional members. currently there are 191 institutional members of which the Nyakyera Area Cooperative Enterprise (ACE) is the biggest, others are Rural Peoples Organizations (RPO’s) being co-operatives and farmers organizations.

Currently the demand for loans is very high and the potential for investing in agricultural production, marketing, storage and processing is very high. The SACCO, ACE and RPO’s are working very close together, the SACCO provides loans, RPO’s produce and their members produce while the ACE is taking care of the storage and marketing the produce. Income is all channeled through the SACCO.

The SACCO wants to expand it services and invest even more in the ACE and RPO’s as these organizations are an engine, like the SACCO itself, for development in the area. The SACCO has however a shortage of funds and cannot provide the necessary loans, the demand is so high that many loan applications have to be declined, not because they are not viable but because no funds are available. Nyakyera Farmer SACCO seeks therefore external funds while at the same time attract more member savings deposits taking care of a proportionate growth of the organization. The SACCO also aims to strengthening its members by providing guidance in agribusiness financial management and assist members in developing their business ideas, as the ACE and RPO’s are independent this needs further streamlining, while focusing on the corebusiness of the SACCO itself.