By Mike Sebal
Under their umbrella body, Uganda Cooperative Alliance Limited, shareholders of the defunct Cooperative Bank want the government to present a report regarding the closure of their bank. They want the report to address the circumstances surrounding Co-operative Bank Limited and its liquidation in 1997.
They also want compensation in case efforts to have all shareholders regain their shareholdings fail.
According to the Alliance’s Secretary-General Ivan Asiimwe, Uganda Co-operative Alliance had shares worth Shs2.53 billion in the trust of co-operatives, Banyankole Kweterena Co-operative Union had Shs220 million in shares, and Kigezi District Growers Co-operative Union had Shs18million, among others.
Asiimwe says none of them was allotted a single share in the Co-operative Bank Limited, the company that Bank of Uganda liquidated, and neither were they compensated. He was speaking to the press from his office in Kampala.
Charity Mugumya, the Director of Communications at Bank of Uganda told KFM that the Co-operative Bank which was established under the law in 1963 was transformed into a corporate entity in 1997 under the Company Act, as a precondition to receiving USAID funding.
She added that later, this transformed entity was closed in 1999 and its liquidation was concluded on July 25, 2020.
