The outgoing Deputy Chief of Defence Forces, Lieutenant General Peter Elwelu cautioned the Wazalendo SACCO leadership and members against being overjoyed by the successes they have so far registered.
“Run away from that syndrome of arrivism. This is the time you must work very hard because this is the time when the devil comes in and can easily disorganise us. So, now you don’t need to sleep! This is the time when some elements may be cropping in to try to take advantage of our celebrations. Most of the empires have collapsed because of that syndrome, arrivism,” said Lt Gen Elwelu.
He was speaking during the 18th Annual General Meeting of Wazalendo SACCO on behalf of the outgoing Chief of Defence Forces that was held today at Gadaffi Barracks, Jinja under the theme: “Enhancing Self Reliance for Sustainability.”
He added, “please Leadership of Wazalendo, you have not arrived. Wazalendo members, we have not yet arrived so let us continue, work hard and make sure our members are happy and shouldn’t doubt us because it was not easy for these elders to convince us. Don’t let us down! The elders did their part and they are watching us.”
Lt Gen Elwelu commended the growth of Wazalendo despite the difficult start it had during its foundation years. “It was very difficult to mobilize people because people had lost trust in the leadership of the army by that time. The soldiers and the junior ranks had lost trust in the leadership because they were all the time stealing their food, salaries; so no soldier trusted us,” said Lt Gen Elwelu.
He commended the former Chief of Defence Forces, the late Gen Aronda Nyakayirima for spearheading efforts in the formation of the SACCO. “I thank the late General Aronda because he brought in a new perspective towards leadership in the UPDF. It is because of him that everybody said yes, now I see we have a new leadership and cadre ship which has gone to the original values of the NRA and now here we are, a great SACCO in the whole country and Africa because of General Aronda’s leadership,” Lt Gen Elwelu said
Gen (Rtd) Kale Kayihura one of the architects of Wazalendo SACCO said that the idea of the cooperative strategy was started in 1988 to address the welfare of soldiers. “The biggest challenge because of the lack of resources was family welfare. Before that, we had no problem because we didn’t have families and pressures whether in the bush or the first years in government where we weren’t earning any salary, but gradually, pressures came,”
CEO Col Freddy Joseph Onata observed that Wazalendo boasts of a membership of over 100,000, share capital of 240bn, savings of 445bn, loan portfolio of 737bn and total asset base of 959bn. “The year ending 2023, we registered a surplus of 73.3bn and we are going to distribute 40% to the members. We have agreed to partially open the common bond to allow us to allow other organisations to come and join the SACCO.”
Col Onata expressed confidence in achieving their target of being a One trillion asset institution. “In our strategic plan, by 2025 Wazalendo SACCO should be a One trillion asset institution and I can guarantee that if everything goes well, we are going to hit that in 2024.”
The meeting was attended by Generals, Senior Officers, Guests from the Cooperative Society, junior officers, delegates and partners.
