Assessment of Success Factors for Area Cooperative Enterprises Affiliated to Uganda Cooperative Alliance

Abstract

With most governments in Africa withdrawing from providing services to the agricultural sector due to Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPS), and also the consequent breakdown of the government supported cooperatives, farmers have been striving to provide for themselves the services they obtained from the government with varying levels of success. In Uganda, one way in which farmers have achieved this is through Area Cooperative Enterprises (ACE). This paper is an assessment of factors influencing the success of ACES affiliated to Uganda Cooperative Alliance (UCA). The study was carried out in 2005. Pair-wise rankings of product, organizational, financial and logistical related factors show that value addition, number of trainings attended, good product prices and availability of transport were ranked highest in terms of contribution towards the group's success in their respective categories. Regression analysis showed that group size and amount of equity contributions were positively related to gross value of business volumes while number of years that ACE has been in operation was negatively related to gross value of business volumes.