Cooperatives in Uganda date way back in 1913 where due to exploitation of farmers by the then organized middlemen of Asian origin, four farmers in the current District of Mubende in the central region of Uganda organized themselves into the first Agricultural Cooperative Kinakulya “literally meaning that we are finished if we don’t wake up by working through cooperation”.

In 1920, four groups in the central region also formed a big cooperative group and from that time we see cooperatives grow at a high and steady pace.

Between 1952 to early 1970”s, cooperative membership grew 8fold, Crop tonnage in major cash crops: Coffee, Tobacco, Tea and cotton increased 6fold and all these were in the hands of the cooperatives. A cooperative college was started in 1963 and cooperative Bank in 1964 with a main objective of delivering quality services to the cooperative movement that had become an engine of economic growth. By 1965, the Ugandan economy was in the hands of the cooperative movement and hence the
farmers.

However, in 1970’s and 1980”s, Uganda went through turmoil of civil wars which badly affected the operations of cooperatives. Cooperatives lost their Assets, stock and membership through death. The current NRM government ushered in peace in 1986 and as cooperatives were regrouping and recovering from the shock, structural adjustment programs of 1990’s like economic liberalization, privatization etc. were adopted by the government of Uganda which actually exposed cooperatives to competition from multinational corporations. These economic policies too contributed
to the collapse of the cooperatives. Despite all these challenges, Uganda Cooperative Alliance (UCA) Ltd has been at the fore front of revitalizing the cooperative movement and currently there are over 18,000 registered Cooperatives in Uganda.We as UCTU its on this ground we are basing to revive to serve this 18000 registered cooperatives with our affordable means of transport.

Vision
The vision of the strategic plan is “An empowered and
productive Cooperative Union that will contribute to the
sustainable Social Economic Development of Uganda and the
EAC through cargo transport”

Mission
The mission of the Strategy is to “Promote Social economic engagement through transportation of cargo, advocacy and capacity building of cooperatives for increased contributions to development”.