DFCU MOVES TO GRAB IGARA ASSETS! Farmers Curse Bank as Shs5Bn Debt Puts Shs20Bn Properties on Auction Block, 7,000 Growers on Edge
Shareholders of Igara Growers Tea Factory Limited are racing against time to save the company’s processing plant, tea estates and other properties from auction over loan arrears exceeding Shs5 billion owed to DFCU Bank.
A public auction notice published on October 7, 2026, by S&L Advocates, acting on the instructions of a financial institution and registered mortgagee, gives the company 30 days to clear the outstanding loan balance, interest, and legal costs or risk losing its assets.
The shareholders have until November 5 to settle the arrears, according to information provided by the company’s stakeholders. The assets at risk include Plot 46, Igara Block 25 in Kabingo, Bushenyi District, where the main processing plant is located; Plot 14, Buhweju Block 29 in Burere, measuring 11.9 hectares; the 80.5-hectare Kakombe Tea Estate; and the 65.5-hectare Nyarugote Estate.
Other properties listed include processing facilities, vacant land, firewood yards, a guesthouse, generator facilities, boiler plants and staff housing, as well as properties in Butare, Rwantaratambi and Kigoma. The lawyers have also directed occupants to vacate the properties within seven days to allow prospective buyers to inspect the assets.
The looming auction has triggered anxiety among shareholders and tea farmers, many of whom depend on the factory to process their produce and sustain their livelihoods. Eliab Muhoozi, a tea farmer and shareholder, expressed concern that the company’s extensive assets could be lost over the outstanding debt, arguing that the properties are worth far more than the loan arrears.
He said the factory’s assets were valued at more than Shs20 billion.
The crisis has also intensified tensions between the company’s management and farmers, who say they are owed approximately Shs6 billion for tea supplied to the factories serving Bushenyi and Buhweju.
Godfrey Agaba, another tea farmer, accused some board members of misappropriating funds obtained by the company, alleging that money intended for operations and the purchase of fertilisers was diverted.
The allegations have not been independently verified. At a crisis meeting held at Bushenyi Playground on Monday, farmers agreed to establish a committee to seek President Yoweri Museveni’s intervention in an effort to save the factory.
Other farmers are pursuing legal action, seeking a court order to convene an extraordinary general meeting at which shareholders would elect an interim board to negotiate with DFCU Bank over the outstanding debt.
The dispute threatens the livelihoods of more than 7,000 smallholder tea farmers in Bushenyi, Buhweju and Sheema districts who depend on the factory for processing and marketing their tea. Established in 1969 under government poverty-alleviation initiatives, Igara Growers Tea Factory was later privatised to smallholder farmers between 1995 and 2000.
The factory has since served as a major economic anchor for tea-growing communities in the region, providing a market for farmers’ produce and supporting related businesses. The proposed auction now places the company’s future, the farmers’ unpaid earnings and the wider tea value chain in the region at risk.
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