Uganda Cooperative Alliance in partnership with DGRV – German Cooperative and Raiffeisen Confederation e. V. established UCA-Advisory Services Centre (UCASC) in April 2017, to train Cooperatives in Governance, Financial Business Management & Loan Appraising, Savings & Loan Portfolio Management, Information Technology and Produce & Pay Schedules Management.
Currently eleven pilot SACCOs and 3 ACEs: in the North (Arua, Lira, Panyimur, Wadelai), West (Mbarara), East (Jinja) and Central (Masaka) region have taken a course module; Savings & Loan Portfolio Management Tool (SLPMT) and several members of ACE’s and five SACCOs have taken course module Basic Financial Business Management and Loan ( BFBM), providing an overwhelming feedback about the relevance, usefulness, and practicability of the course contents and accompanying hands-on tools.
Course modules and their benefits
The following course modules & hands-on tools have been developed by UCASC with technical support from Dr. Birgit Galemann, short term consultant of the DGRV. The main training days, quoted in brackets are provided on-site. This is then followed by remote supervision and follow-up period spread over several months.
- GOV: Effective Governance in cooperatives deploying innovative MS Excel-
based tools (1 day)
Audience: All existing and potential leaders, the management staff of SACCOs or ACEs
- IT: Professional handling of a computer, MS Word, – Excel, and e-mail (1 day)
Audience: Staff of SACCOs or ACEs that owns at least a laptop or desktop including any means to connect to the internet (modem, smartphone, etc.)
- BFBM: Basic Financial Business Management and Loan Appraising (1 day)
Audience: Staff of SACCOs or ACEs and their members; the staff are taught how to apply the concepts themselves, in the subsequent day emphasize should be put on training the staff how to teach their members in turn
Tools provided: Hard copy Cost-Income Template of Financial Projections Tool covering one (average) operating business period. Trainees will learn how to
- Develop good business idea
- Conduct market analysis.
- Make a financial plan and production schedule.
- Calculate whether the business is viable.
- Enhance viable businesses, save and reinvest the profit.
- Repay loans provided by their SACCOs, ACEs or other financial Institution.
(For remote follow up, the template is also available in an electronic form.)
- AFBM: Advanced Financial Business Management and Loan Appraising (2 days)
Audience: Staff of SACCOs/ACEs owning at least a laptop or a PC and having taken “Basic Financial Business Management” course module
Tools provided: Financial Projections Tool (MS Excel) including Cash flows Template across all operating business periods for proper loan structuring
- SLPMT: Savings & Loan Portfolio Management – concepts & applications (2 times2 days)
Audience: Staff of saccos with up to 1,500 loans and 4,500 members that have at least a laptop or a PC and (an) employee(s) with basic computer skills including MS Excel, but are not yet using vendor banking software. It is for SACCOs which are not yet ready to invest into a vendor Banking Software.
Tools provided: MS Excel-based Savings & Loan Portfolio Management Tool (SLPMT) allowing to record, monitor, analyse and manage savings, fixed deposits, shares as well as each loan’s performance. It also provides arrears reports and basic liquidity management.
- PPSMT: Produce and Pay Schedules Management Tool (2 times 2 days)
Audience: Staff of ACEs that have at least a laptop or a PC and (an) employee(s) with basic computer skills including MS Excel.
Tools provided: MS Excel-based Pay & Produce Schedule Management Tool (PPSMT) allowing to record, monitor, analyze and manage the schedules of pay & produce regarding the ACE’s input-, production-, processing and sales businesses for each of their products with each of its member RPOs as well as the individual members of the RPOs.
Each course is taught by the local trainers through “shoulder to shoulder training”, on-site at the premise of interested SACCOs and ACEs. lists all course modules & hands-on tools developed by UCA with technical support from Dr. Galemann
UCACS has organised several trainings conducted by Dr. Birgit Galemann, a training expert from DGRV-German Cooperative and Raiffeisen Confederation e. V. The Trainers and Support Staff will continue attending more training by the Training Expert until the full set of all anticipated innovative course modules specifically designed for UCA’s network of SACCOs and ACEs have been delivered and practiced in the fields.
