Uganda Veterinary Association

REQUIREMENTS FOR ACCESSING THE UVA VETERINARY PRIVATIZATION PROJECT LOAN

First of all, you have to be a registered veterinary surgeon and a member of Uganda Veterinary Association irrespective of whether you are employed by Government or in private practice. Forms to process this are at the reception for members who are not yet registered. Formerly, these loans were for Veterinarians in private practice however, the Steering Committee reviewed this to include veterinarians in the public sector to enable them get a soft landing after retirement.
Secondly, you need to apply formally. The application should be addressed to the Manager, UVA Veterinary Privatization Project, P. O. Box 16540, Kampala and it should bare your personal address plus a reliable telephone contact, amount required, location of your practice, where you graduated from/ period, experience to date and your team lineup plus other qualifications if any.
Project identification. The first phase of cycle is concerned with identifying the project ideas that appear to represent a high priority in order to achieve development goals. In our case, Veterinary Drug Sales, Veterinary Clinical Practice, Veterinary Consultancy services, Animal Production among others are our project scope.
Feasibility Analysis and Appraisal

This is the process of determining if the ability of individual area of operation and the combined inputs are capable of project implementation. The degree to which it’s possible to determine project feasibility will depend on the precision of project information. This may relate to the technical, economic, commercial, financial, managerial, organizational and other aspects of the project. Social, political, environmental and cultural factors may also be taken into consideration. In brief, the area of the Practice should provide enough clientele and income for the practice to succeed. For Example, the following should be put into consideration:

Livestock numbers
Poultry numbers
Farmer’s capacity to pay for veterinary services rendered.
Physical Location of the Practice. E.g. Arua Main street location is expensive in terms of rent thus this will make veterinary drugs more expensive compared to Arua Market Area and in the end one will get less turnover which will affect profit and lead to eventual business collapse.
Project proposal. This should be in line with the project scope, i.e. provision of veterinary services to livestock farmers and of late Production. Our MOU’s with the banks are very clear on this. Anything other than that will be rejected. E.g don’t include dealing in Timber, Clearing Agent etc. but remember the veterinary fraternity has a guide to professional conduct and money will be yours. An element of livestock farming can be included as a demonstration in line with Production just in case one is interested, however, the banks target is to finance a practice with a an appropriate rate of returns.

This measure tells how much profit is made for each unit of money invested. Basic features of a proposal are:-

An introduction
Project Plan
Aims and Objectives
Typical Operation
legal Status
Sponsors
Management and Organization
Line Industry
Market Aspects
Competition
Location
Capital Requirements Collateral
Profitability, Social and Economic Aspects etc.
The Project Secretariat at the reception can help you with a draft to guide you by email or get it from the CD with the workshop proceedings and its Sub Directory is Draft Proposal.
Besides, a cash flow projection is also required. This includes the inflows, (Income) e.g. Drug sells, Consultation fees, vaccinations, pregnancy Diagnosis, Feeds Sales etc and outflows (Expenses) e.g. Purchases and operational costs. It is recommended to include the Loan amount in the inflows to easily measurer the project worth. The project secretariat can also help you to draft this.
Loan duration is 24 months and 36 months for CERUDEB and DFCU respectively.
Loan amount varies from bank to bank depending on Memorandum of Understanding. Maximum Amount for the Centenary Rural Development Bank is Shs 35m and with DFCU, our MOU is open to an individual’s/ Privatization project absorption capacity. Loans of e.g. 60m have been disbursed to members.
Security/ Collateral. For DFCU, one has to have certificate of title and minimum amount is 10m. However, with CERUDEB, even a land agreement can work with a Max limit of 10m . Other securities accepted in CERUDEB are Vehicle registration cards, land titles to mention but a few.

Note: All these banks accept powers of attorney.

Character Loans. Projects of up to Shs 5m can be funded depending on the character of the applicant. This is 100 % guaranteed by the Fixed Deposit Receipt however; you are required to provide two sound guarantors (Well established customers) acceptable to the bank. This opportunity is already being implemented in CERUDEB. This was introduced mainly to help the fresh graduates who don’t have any collateral to present to the bankers.
Besides, a bank statement for the last six months is also required by the banks to determine your income level and capacity to pay back. It’s a good habit to bank all your income. Even if you urgently want your cash, at least make contra transactions on your account. i.e. Bank your cash and withdrawal it immediately but remember to have a degree of a reasonable propensity to save to enable you have a reasonable balance on your account.
A statement of Assets and Liabilities is also needed. This shows your Assets i.e. Fixed and current Assets less liabilities if any.
Loan interest is 19% per annum –calculated on reducing balance basis. I.e. Interest is calculated on the loan balance you have as opposed to fixed rate method where a fixed rate is calculated initially and apportioned evenly throughout the loan schedule.
Lastly, a list of start up costs is also needed. This is a list of items you intend to start with which equals to the loan amount requested for, however, avoid sinking capital. I.e. allocate most funds in to current assets with a high rate of return or turn over like fast moving drugs which will plough back the profits.
After you accomplish this, you are required to submit your proposal to the UVA Project Secretariat, which evaluates a minimum of two applicants depending on the flow of applications. This was done to save time and above all, to disburse as much funds as possible to the interested beneficiaries.
After your proposal is evaluated by the Steering Sub Committee, it is thereafter forwarded to the bank for funding; however, the bank also has some requirements you have to fulfill. E.g. opening an account, registering your title with them. Etc.