Data shows more than 70% of PEWOSA SACCO members are women, underlining the initiative’s potential to deepen women-led enterprise and inclusive growth in rural communities
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | For more than a decade, Frank Nyanzi, a 57-year-old coffee farmer from Madudu Sub-county in Mubende District, has grappled with declining yields, a trend he attributes largely to climate change.
Prolonged dry spells, rising temperatures, and persistent pest and disease outbreaks — particularly coffee wilt disease and coffee berry borer beetles — have steadily eroded his harvests and household income. What was once a dependable livelihood has increasingly become a source of financial strain.
“We have been trying our best to manage our farms, but we have been limited by a lack of long-term, reliable financing,” Nyanzi said. “We have struggled to access investments like irrigation systems and often end up buying substandard inputs.”
On Feb.23, Stanbic Bank Uganda and the Buganda Kingdom launched Ssemaduuka, a one-stop agricultural business centre designed to expand access to structured credit, strengthen SACCO governance, and formalise coffee value chains across the Kingdom.
Implemented through the Buganda Cultural and Development Foundation (BUCADEF), Ssemaduuka creates a coordinated ecosystem linking farmer SACCOs to financing, quality farm inputs, aggregation centres, digital payments, and export markets. The primary target: farmers like Nyanzi.
Speaking at the launch in Mubende, Tunde Thorpe, Head of Business and Commercial Banking at Stanbic, described the initiative as a shift from fragmented agricultural support to a structured economic partnership.
“Ssemaduuka allows us to finance the entire value chain from inputs to export,” Thorpe said. “It strengthens SACCO governance, improves farmer productivity, formalises payments, and expands access to markets. This is ecosystem banking designed to deliver measurable impact.”
Robert Waggwa Nsibirwa, the Kingdom’s Second Deputy Premier and Minister for Finance, Investments, Planning and Economic Development, called the initiative transformative for household incomes and agricultural modernisation.
“Wealth will not find you in your house; it finds you in the garden,” Nsibirwa said. “Through initiatives like this, we are planting a future where every household is self-reliant.”
He urged farmers to embrace the programme as part of the Kingdom’s broader push to transition households from subsistence production to sustainable agribusiness.
Ssemaduuka aligns with Stanbic’s Positive Impact Agenda, which prioritises financial inclusion for women, youth and farmers, while supporting enterprise-led job creation, infrastructure strengthening and climate resilience.
Data shows more than 70% of PEWOSA SACCO members are women, underlining the initiative’s potential to deepen women-led enterprise and inclusive growth in rural communities.
Under the new model, BUCADEF will recommend qualifying SACCOs for banking support, after which Stanbic will assess and extend structured credit facilities. Farmers will access inputs through Masaza stores, while produce will be aggregated and linked to organised buyers.
Emmanuel Naigombe, Stanbic’s Head of Agribusiness, said transactions will be digitised via the bank’s One Farm platform to enable trade finance solutions and support export flows.
For farmers like Nyanzi, the structured approach brings renewed optimism. “With better access to quality inputs, organised markets and financing, I believe we can recover and grow again,” he said.
