On behalf of the Uganda Police Force Management as well as on-my own behalf, it gives me great pleasure to close this 10th Annual General Meeting of Exodus Savings and Credit Cooperative Society Ltd (SACCO). I hope you have had a very enriching and insightful discussion on where you want the Sacco to be as we define the future of the welfare of our officers.
As the Inspector General of Police and the patron of this Sacco, I attach a lot of importance to this meeting because of two main reasons: –
1) It fulfils the statutory requirement of holding meetings as stipulated in the Sacco Constitution.
2) It gives the Sacco leadership an opportunity to revive its mandate and also account to its members.
As I explained before, such Associations are formed with a mission of promoting the welfare of their members for prosperity and development through savings, investment support and efficient utilization of resources to alleviate poverty.
This specific Sacco was started with a background that the resource envelope from the government cannot be adequate to address all our officers’ needs. Similarly, the Commercial banks have hostile and bureaucratic policies with high interest rates that cannot accommodate our daily financial requirements. The commercial Banks were also exposing majority of our officers to extreme poverty, hardships and enormous financial difficulties. Therefore, there was need for an Association where officers jointly collect financial resources, invest, protect, lend and support themselves at low interest rates.
On a positive note, I commend the good work done by the out-going team that has dedicated time and effort in setting the Exodus Sacco to the right direction, although there is still a lot to be done.
Going forward, I implore the new Sacco leadership to be transparent, improve on customer care, embrace modern technology, reach out, sensitize, and attract other Police officers to voluntarily join and strengthen the financial stability of the Sacco.
In a special way, allow me to acknowledge with gratitude the day’s facilitators for the knowledge given to our officers.
Finally, let me also thank each and every one of you for your valuable contributions to the Exodus Sacco. Now I believe is the time to implement our thinking and our talking about improving our welfare with boldness, ambition, urgency – and, very importantly – innovation.
With the above remarks, accept my best wishes for your personal happiness and I declare this 10th Annual General Meeting closed.
J.M.Okoth-Ochola,(Esq)
INSPECTOR GENERAL OF POLICE
