In their October 2022 Petition to the president of Uganda, copied to the Chief Justice of Uganda, The Rt. Hon. Speaker of Parliament, The Chairperson Inter-religious Council of Uganda, The Chairperson National Farmers Organisations, Members of Parliament and the Citizenry, the students guilds cite several factors for their ‘open to discussion proposal’

In September this year, Retired Lt. Moses Magufuri Mugisha authored a proposal that was published in the media urging government to expeditiously re- establish a cooperative bank so that it caters for the unique needs and challenges of farmers as it was previously, before the cooperative bank was liquidated.

The students argue that there is a very narrow tax base , because farmers are averse to taking high agriculture commercial bank interest loans that stand between 23- 25% as opposed  to the paltry 3-5% affordable loans that used to be extended to willing farmers.

The students noted that because of this narrow tax base, the government hardly manages to finance 50% of its budget that currently stands at 48 trillion. Students contend that if government re- establishes a commercial bank, farmers who constitute 70% of Uganda’s work force, will come out enemas to borrow and turn away from subsistence farming to commercial aggro-processing that will eventually spur the economy.

The students argued that the various government programmes including the most recent of Parish Development Model (PDM) are all bedeviled by corruption and mismanagement. The students aver that programmes aimed at giving funds to citizens are most often construed as  a political inducement to electorates who are most often reluctant to pay back the money into the intended revolving fund for omnibus usage.  Students argued that, this is unsustainable and cannot advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS)

Students Back Moses Magufuri Mugisha

Retired Lt. Moses Magufuri in his proposal, argued that the government owns 3 banking concern entities namely Post Bank, Pride Microfinance Bank and and Microfinance Support Centre from which it can choose one or merge them all into a cooperative bank to exclusively serve farmers who are the back born of the economy.  The guild councils overwhelmingly signed and stamped their proposal to the president backing Magufuri’s argument.