For over ten years, Frank Nyanzi, a 57-year-old coffee farmer in Madudu Subcounty, Mubende District, has battled declining yields. His efforts to improve production have had little success, and a once dependable source of livelihood has become a source of frustration and financial strain.
“We have been trying our best to manage our farms, but we have been limited by a lack of long-term, reliable financing,” Nyanzi said. “We have struggled to access important investments like irrigation systems and often end up buying substandard inputs.”
To support farmers like Nyanzi, on February 23, Stanbic Bank Uganda and the Buganda Kingdom launched Ssemaduuka, a one-stop agricultural business centre aimed at expanding access to credit.
Implemented through the Buganda Cultural and Development Foundation (BUCADEF), Ssemaduuka will strengthen savings and credit cooperative organisations (SACCOs) and formalise coffee value chains across Buganda. The partnership will link farmer SACCOs to financing, farm inputs, aggregation centres, digital payments, and export markets.
Speaking during the launch at Mayors Gardens in Mubende Municipality, Tunde Thorpe, Head of Business and Commercial Banking at Stanbic Bank, described Ssemaduuka as a shift from fragmented agricultural support to a structured economic partnership.
“Ssemaduuka allows us to finance the entire value chain from inputs to export,” he said. “It strengthens SACCO governance, improves farmer productivity, formalises payments, and expands access to markets. This is ecosystem banking designed to deliver measurable impact.”
Robert Waggwa Nsibirwa, the Second Deputy Premier (Katikkiro) and Minister for Finance, Investments, Planning, and Economic Development in the Buganda Kingdom, said Ssemaduuka is a transformative step toward strengthening household incomes and modernising agriculture across the Kingdom.
“Wealth will not find you in your house; it finds you in the garden. Agriculture is the backbone of our people’s prosperity, and through initiatives like this, we are not just establishing a structure here in Buwekula, but we are planting a future where every household is self-reliant,” Nsibirwa said.
He encouraged residents to embrace the initiative, noting that it aligns with the Kingdom’s vision of transitioning farmers from subsistence production to sustainable agribusiness.
Ssemaduuka aligns with Stanbic’s Positive Impact Agenda, which focuses on women, youth, and farmers through financial inclusion, enterprise-led job creation, infrastructure strengthening, climate resilience, and corporate philanthropy.
For farmers like Nyanzi, this partnership brings renewed optimism.
“With better access to quality inputs, organised markets, and financing, I believe we can recover and grow again,” he said.
This partnership, launched as Stanbic Bank Uganda marks 35 years in the country, aligns with the bank’s purpose: “Uganda is our home, we drive her growth.”
Crops like coffee remain a backbone of Uganda’s rural economy, supporting thousands of families whose livelihoods have increasingly been threatened by climate change, pests, diseases, and limited access to affordable financing. Through Ssemaduuka, Stanbic Bank and the Buganda Kingdom aim to transform coffee farming from a vulnerable subsistence activity into a resilient, commercially viable enterprise, offering farmers like Nyanzi a more secure and profitable future.
Emmanuel Naigombe, Head of Agribusiness at Stanbic Bank, said under the new model, BUCADEF will recommend qualifying SACCOs for banking support, after which the bank will assess and extend structured credit facilities.
“Farmers will access inputs through Masaza stores, and produce will be aggregated and linked to organised buyers,” Naigombe said.
He added that transactions will be digitised via Stanbic’s One Farm platform to enable trade finance solutions that support export flows.
