Zebra Sacco posts great returns to earn its stripes

The compound is a beehive of activity. Different sets of youth, all clad in overalls similar to Akem-Gwene’s, are engaged in different activities.

One group is seen moving sets of steel door and window frames to a display area on the Kampala-Gulu Highway; another is seen moving metallic angle bars from a hardware shop towards the workshop where the fabrication and welding is done. 

Another group is seen moving steel plates to another end of the workshop where metallic suitcases are made.

This is the home of the Bombo Town Council-based Zebra Metal Workshop Youth Group Savings and Credit Cooperative (Sacco).

Moses Sewakiryanga, the patron of the group, says the Sacco idea was born out of the need to not only create an income-generating project for themselves but also equip school dropouts with some skills.

“The question was: 'Can't we start up something that could help employ us, but also absorb all these school dropouts so that they can have a new beginning?’ Luckily, there were many like-minded people whose children had also dropped out of school,” Sewakiryanga says.

It is not difficult to see where Sewakiryanga was coming from.

It emerged, during the release of the 2012 Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE), that only 463,332 out of the 1,598,636 pupils who had enrolled for Universal Primary Education (UPE) in 2006 had completed their primary education.

For the case of Luweero, lack of infrastructure and refusal by the parents to provide their children with meals and scholastic materials were to blame for the high dropout levels.

A shortage of vocational training centres where those who had dropped out at higher levels compounded the problem.

Stanley Mukalazi, alias Bikaali, who runs a metal fabrication workshop in Bombo Town, was one of those who bought into the idea.

Yusuf Nsereko Ssekamatte, the secretary of the Sacco, says it was at Bikaali's behest that they forayed into metal fabrication.

“He urged us to enter the business and offered to train us. We did not have jobs so we felt that this was an opportunity for us to embark on a journey that would help us along with the rest of the youth here,” Mr Ssekamatte says.

A septet

Ssekamatte says the group started in 2012 with seven people.

“When we first began, each member was required to save Shs5,000 per week. But in 2017, when we registered as a Sacco and also started working, we opened up the amounts that one could save per week to whatever one could afford as long as it was above Shs,5000,” he said.

Over the last 12 years, the Sacco has grown into a multifaceted business entity with a membership of 60.

In terms of skilling, it has attracted apprentices from various parts of the country, a scenario which Sewakiryanga says is telling.

“As you can hear from the names, these people are from different parts of the country. That they are all here tells you that they have a shared problem,” he says.

Hadijah Nantale, the Sacco’s treasurer, says as the membership grew so did the savings and asset base.

“We have more than Shs20m in savings, another Shs16m or so in loans given to members and more than Shs100m in movable and immovable assets,” she said.

“We run a metal fabrication workshop where metallic gates, metallic door and window frames and double-decker beds for mostly school-going children are made; train the youth in welding and metal fabrication; provide employment to some of its apprentices and; run a hardware shop that deals in a variety of building materials,” Ssekamatte says.

The hardware sells the angle bars and welding rods and other accessories to the metal fabrication workshop.

That way, the profits that would have been bagged by any hardware dealer who would have sold such items to the Sacco remain within.

Its model

Peter Mujuni, the executive director of the Microfinance Support Centre (MSC), says Zebra Sacco has on account of its business model emerged as one of the model Saccos that the MSC uses in teaching other Saccos how to go about their own operations.

“Its operations are very instructive. When we organise exchange visits for other Saccos, Zebra is one of those that we use to cause mind-set changes especially in the management of finances, accounts and operations,” Mujuni says.

Ssekamatte partially attributes the Sacco’s success to its strategic good workmanship, strategic location—on the Kampala-Gulu highway—and goodwill from the community.

“Being strategically located on the Gulu-Kampala highway made it easy for us to sell. The goods are easily visible to the public, but most important of all, however, is the fact that the customers seem appreciative of what we do. There is, for example, a girls’ school nearby called Aisha, they have always supported us by giving us orders to make double-decker beds,” he says.

Sewakiryanga, however, says if Zebra Sacco has been able to shine and emerge as a model Sacco in the region, it has been largely because of the support rendered by MSC.

He adds that whereas the Sacco had initially received financial support from, among others Bombo Town Council, the Gender ministry and Post Bank Uganda, it had remained largely challenged until the MSC came in.

“Whereas we had the skills, we did not have the capital to acquire modern machines that could enable us to take on big jobs. The first loan that MSC gave us helped to get big machines,” he said.

The Sacco has so far got two loans from MSC, one of Shs30m, which was given in 2017, and another of Shs40m, which was obtained last year. Most of the funds have been expended on operations and remaining afloat.

“Sometimes a customer gives you a job of Shs2m and deposits as little as Shs500,000. Even when the job is done, they will not pay immediately. One, therefore, always needs a big capital outlay to continue operating. That is where the low interest rate charged by MSC comes handy,” he says.

Besides stocking up materials for its operations, the Sacco used some of the money from MSC to improve the working spaces and acquire and install computers and close-circuit television cameras to boost both record and book keeping and security.

Ssewakiryanga revels in the satisfaction that the Sacco has achieved what it set out to do, but a headache of a different nature has come along.

“The idea was initially that the training would be provided at a minimal cost, but in most cases, the youth arrive here with nothing to their name. You, in the circumstance, take him in as you would your own child,” he says.

The question is, for how long?