The Ministry of Trade, Industries, and Cooperatives has embarked on a campaign to promote collaborative working among cooperative societies.
Collaborative working among cooperatives has been promoted in other countries because of its benefits, such as pooling of resources, expertise, and ideas that result from businesses collaborating.
It helps businesses gain entry into markets previously closed to them, ans allow expansion through the cost savings resulting from economies of scale.
It also gives co‑ops the ability to offer enhancements to the products and services they offer as a result of combining intellectual property, systems, and processes.
Deogratius Masagaszi, the Ministry of Trade Undersecretary, said that it’s high time cooperative societies considered coming together to enhance their value addition and export capacities.
Masagaszi noted that the current desire for trade development requires structured collaborations among actors in similar production and value-addition subsectors, instead of operating as business competitors.
He was addressing a trade Symposium for administrators of cooperatives in the greater Masaka sub-region.
Masagzi explained that studies have established that collaborations among cooperatives at various levels are a viable strategy for creating sustainable markets for the produced products, because it ensures consistency in supply and quality of goods.
MMasagaszi observed that many primary and secondary cooperative societies across the country still lack the capacity to meet export market requirements.
He added that stronger collaboration would also make it easier for the government to monitor product quality, strengthen confidence in Uganda’s exports, and increase foreign exchange earnings.
The Commissioner for Processing and Marketing, Dr. Joshua Mutambi, said the ministry is also working to operationalise regional trade improvement one-stop centres across the country to improve access to government services for cooperatives and other businesses.However, Joseph Kiwanuka Basajja, Manager of Kabonera Coffee Farmers’ Cooperative Society in Masaka, said that while collaboration offers significant benefits, the government should subsidise value-addition facilities to enable cooperatives to meet the growing demand for processed products.//Cue in: “Kati kino eky’okugatta…”-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
