IGP Ochola salutes management as Police Exodus Sacco savings grow to shs20.7bn

The Inspector General of Police, John Martins Okoth Ochola has hailed the new management of the Police Exodus Sacco for doing a great work in reviving the sacco.

In December 2019, Senior Commissioner of Police Wilson Omoding was elected as the new chairperson for the Police Exodus Sacco and he was tasked with reviving the glory which had been lost over mismanagement of the sacco.

Speaking at the closure of the Annual General Meeting, Ochola expressed pleasure at the way the sacco is currently being run, noting that there are visible changes.

“I am happy to observe that quite a number of changes are being implemented and administrative challenges have fortunately been addressed within this short time. There  is hope that Exodus Sacco is about to bear its intended fruits. I commend the current board and committee members for breathing a new life into the sacco,”Ochola said.

The police chief noted that whereas in the past, the sacco was synonymous  to mismanagement of funds, lack of customers care and other administrative challenges, the new leadership has turned around the operations of the Exodus Sacco .

Performance

According to Senior Commissioner of Police Wilson Omoding, the Exodus Police sacco has seen its liquidity grow from shs93 million in 2019 to over shs200 million in 2020.

He added that the bank balance has also grown from shs277 million in 2019 to shs3.05billion as at December 2020 with shs6.5 billion in fixed deposits.

“Members’ total savings deposits increased from shs18.9 billion in December 2019 to shs20.7 billion by December,31, 2020 reflecting a 10% growth,”Omoding said.

He attributed the growth in savings to continuous recruitment of new members, sensitization and timely remittances of members’ savings with support from police management.

“Total membership stood at approximately 32000 members by December 2019 and rose by 5000 to approximately 37000 by close of December 2020. All these members are fully paid, ” he added.

Omoding noted that the sacco also issued loans worth shs9.2 billion in 2020 whereas shs1.9 billion was given out to 10153 beneficiaries of the Exodus Sacco.

Challenges

Omoding said despite the achievements, the Exodus Police Sacco still faces some challenges that he said ought to be addressed.

“Delayed payment by Uganda Police Force for food supplies by the Exodus Sacco canteen to a tune of shs3billion to date is a big challenge. There is also delayed payment by government  of shs4.2billion of which shs1.2billion is supposed to be recovered by Exodus Sacco in relation to the supply of hot meals by the sacco under the Mwangaza crime preventers project in 2016 general elections,” he said.

He also decried the lack of external funding and sufficient capital grants and donations to help expand the equity position of the Police Exodus Sacco  which would improve the members’ welfare and wealth creation through loan penetration as a result of adequate capital.

“There is a poor savings culture and negative attitude towards saving by majority of members which is a big challenge.”