Goretti Namugga, the Mawogola County Member of Parliament indicates that the program guidelines were not elaborated to the beneficiaries leaving a big information gap that was exploited by unscrupulous money lenders that have since fleeced many unsuspecting beneficiaries.
Unscrupulous money lenders and misrepresentation
of guidelines have been identified as the major impediments to the effective implementation of the Emyooga program in Sembabule district.
Emyooga is a Presidential wealth and job
creation initiative, which
was launched in 2019, targeting to enhance entrepreneurial capacities of
selected groups to improve the livelihood of
their members.
The beneficiaries are according to the program’s
framework required to form and register a savings and Credit Cooperative
Organizations-SACCOs at the parish level that are directly funded with 30 million Shillings as seed capital from the government.
The money is expected
to revolve among members in form of soft loans. However, in
Sembabule district, the program is experiencing
glitches that are affecting its progress and the realization of intended objectives due to
unclear guidelines and unscrupulous money lenders operating in the area.
Goretti Namugga, the Mawogola County Member of Parliament indicates that the program
guidelines were not elaborated to the beneficiaries leaving a big information
gap that was exploited by unscrupulous money lenders that have since fleeced
many unsuspecting beneficiaries.
She explains that instead of
making modest savings to the SACCOs as a way to naturally grow their loan
limits, out of excitement many beneficiaries were misguided to obtain credit
from loan sharks, which they used as security to enable them quickly access the
program funds.
Namugga says that as a result, many
beneficiaries are borrowing from their SACCO to clear the high-demanding money
lenders, hence the program failing to meet its objectives in the community.
(Luganda)
//Cue in; “abantu tebazitgeera …..
Cue out; ……tebateekebwa tekeebwa
bulungi.”//
Reports by the District Commercial Office indicate
that Sembabule has 237 SACCOs that have since received Shillings 2.26 billion. However,
the district is struggling to recover from the borrowers who have only been
able to pay back Shillings 900 million within two years.
Namugga has also attributed the apparent low
recovery of the funds to failure by the program implementers to involve all
concerned stakeholders in the mobilization of beneficiaries; something she says
would support effective implementation, monitoring, and facilitating
recoveries.
She has
called upon the State Minister for Microfinance, Harunah Kyeyune Kasolo to revise the program
guidelines to bring on board all concerned parties towards realizing its
successful implementation.
//Cue in: “program
nnungi….
Cue out; ….okukola
omulimo ogwo.”//
Despite the challenges cited, the State Minister for Microfinance, Harunah Kyeyune Kasolo, tasked the local
leadership and local program monitors during his program progress motoring tour
in the district to ensure that the money is put to effective use to grow the
local enterprise groups.
He says the government is considering using the
coercive approaches on all defaulters of the program funds and called upon local leaders to move in faster and weed
out the unscrupulous speculators before the government reigns in with a bigger
force.
//Cue in: “ssente
government……
Cue out; …..musango munene.”//
Magaba Malik, the Sembabule District Chief Administrative
Officer, says that
they are going to send out their teams on impromptu inspection of all
benefiting enterprise groups to find out what they using the money for.
