For years, Frank Nyanzi, a 57-year-old coffee farmer from Madudu Sub-county in Mubende District, has watched his yields steadily decline. Once sustained by predictable harvests, his livelihood has been battered by prolonged dry spells, rising temperatures, and recurring pest infestations — notably coffee wilt disease and the destructive coffee berry borer.
Despite efforts to adopt better farming practices, Nyanzi says the absence of affordable, long-term financing has made it difficult to invest in irrigation systems and quality farm inputs, leaving him trapped in a cycle of low productivity and shrinking income.
“We have been trying our best to manage our farms, but we have been limited by a lack of long-term, reliable financing,” Nyanzi explained. “Without access to proper funding, it is hard to invest in irrigation or buy quality inputs.”
It is farmers like Nyanzi that a new partnership between Stanbic Bank Uganda and the Buganda Kingdom seeks to support.
A Structured Approach to Agricultural Finance
On Monday, February 23, the two institutions officially launched Ssemaduuka, a one-stop agricultural business centre designed to expand structured credit to farmer-owned Savings and Credit Cooperative Organisations (SACCOs), strengthen governance, and formalise coffee value chains across the Kingdom.
The initiative is being implemented through the Buganda Cultural and Development Foundation (BUCADEF) and aims to create a coordinated ecosystem that links farmer SACCOs to financing, farm inputs, aggregation centres, digital payments, and export markets.
Speaking at the launch held at the Mayors Gardens in Mubende Municipality, Tunde Thorpe, Head of Business and Commercial Banking at Stanbic Bank Uganda, described Ssemaduuka as a shift from fragmented agricultural interventions to a structured, value-chain financing model.
“Ssemaduuka allows us to finance the entire value chain from inputs to export,” Thorpe said. “It strengthens SACCO governance, improves farmer productivity, formalises payments, and expands access to markets. This is ecosystem banking designed to deliver measurable impact.”
Driving Household Wealth Through Agriculture
Robert Waggwa Nsibirwa, the Second Deputy Katikkiro and Minister for Finance, Investments, Planning and Economic Development in the Buganda Kingdom, hailed the initiative as a transformative step toward raising household incomes and modernising agriculture.
“Wealth will not find you in your house; it finds you in the garden,” Nsibirwa told residents. “Agriculture remains the backbone of our people’s prosperity. Through this initiative, we are not just setting up a structure in Buwekula — we are laying the foundation for self-reliant households across the Kingdom.”
He urged communities to embrace the programme, noting that it aligns with the Kingdom’s broader vision of transitioning farmers from subsistence production to sustainable agribusiness.
How Ssemaduuka Will Work
Under the arrangement, BUCADEF will identify and recommend qualifying SACCOs for banking support. Stanbic will then assess the cooperatives and extend structured credit facilities tailored to agricultural cycles.
Farmers will access quality inputs through Masaza stores, while produce will be aggregated and linked to organised buyers to ensure better pricing and reduced post-harvest losses.
Transactions across the value chain will be digitised through Stanbic’s One Farm platform, enabling traceability, formal payments, and access to trade finance solutions to support export flows.
By integrating financing, input supply, aggregation, and market access into a single ecosystem, the partners say Ssemaduuka is intended to reduce risk for farmers and lenders alike — and ultimately restore hope for growers like Nyanzi, whose future depends on a more resilient and better-financed agricultural sector.
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