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The outgoing Deputy Chief of Defence Forces, Lieutenant General Peter Elwelu on Monday, March 25, cautioned the Wazalendo SACCO leadership and members against being overjoyed by the successes they had so far registered.

"Run away from that syndrome of arrivism. This is the time you must work very hard because this is the time when the devil comes in and can easily disorganise us. So, now you don't need to sleep! This is the time when some elements may be cropping in to try to take advantage of our celebrations. Most of the empires have collapsed because of that syndrome, arrivism," Lt Gen. Elwelu said.

The Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) in a statement on Monday noted that Lt Gen. Elwelu made the remarks during the 18th Annual General Meeting of Wazalendo SACCO on behalf of the outgoing Chief of Defence Forces that was held at Gadaffi Barracks, Jinja, under the theme: "Enhancing Self Reliance for Sustainability."

Lt. Gen. Elwelu added, "Please Leadership of Wazalendo, you have not arrived. Wazalendo members, we have not yet arrived so let us continue, work hard, and make sure our members are happy and shouldn't doubt us because it was not easy for these elders to convince us. Don't let us down! The elders did their part and they are watching us."

Lt Gen. Elwelu commended the growth of Wazalendo despite the difficult start it had during its foundation years.

"It was very difficult to mobilise people because people had lost trust in the leadership of the army by that time. The soldiers and the junior ranks had lost trust in the leadership because they were all the time stealing their food and salaries; so, no soldier trusted us," said Lt Gen. Elwelu.

He commended the former Chief of Defence Forces, the late Gen. Aronda Nyakayirima, for spearheading efforts in the formation of the SACCO.

"I thank the late General Aronda because he brought in a new perspective towards leadership in the UPDF. It is because of him that everybody said yes, now I see we have a new leadership and cadre ship that has gone to the original values of the NRA and now here we are, a great SACCO in the whole country and Africa because of General Aronda's leadership," Lt Gen. Elwelu said

Gen. (Rtd) Kale Kayihura one of the architects of Wazalendo SACCO said that the idea of the cooperative strategy was started in 1988 to address the welfare of soldiers.

"The biggest challenge because of the lack of resources was family welfare. Before that, we had no problem because we didn't have families and pressures whether in the bush or the first years in government where we weren't earning any salary, but gradually, pressures came," he said.

WSACCO chief executive officer Col Freddy Joseph Onata noted that Wazalendo boasts of a membership of over 100,000, share capital of sh240b, savings of sh445b, loan portfolio of sh737b, and total asset base of sh959b.

"The year ending 2023, we registered a surplus of sh73.3b and we are going to distribute 40% to the members. We have agreed to partially open the common bond to allow us to allow other organisations to come and join the SACCO."

Col Onata expressed confidence in achieving their target of being a one trillion asset institution. "In our strategic plan, by 2025 Wazalendo SACCO should be a one trillion asset institution and I can guarantee that if everything goes well, we are going to hit that in 2024."

The meeting was attended by generals, senior officers, guests from the cooperative society, junior officers, delegates, and partners.

Wazalendo SACCO herein referred to as ‘WSACCO’ is a Ministry of Defence and UPDF co-operative society that enables its members to come together and pool funds so that, they can access credit loans to engage in productive activities for improving their welfare.

It was registered in September 2005 with Registration Number 7419.