Pay your loans by end of January 2023, Gulu City Emyooga SACCOs told
GULU-Nixon Komakech Atemo, the Principal Commercial Officer for Gulu City has urged Emyooga SACCOs to pay back their loans by January 31, 2023 or else they will face the wrath of the law.
Gulu City received over One billion shillings under Emyooga Programme, of which 521 million was allocated to 18 Saccos in Western Division of Bardege-Layibi while Laroo-Pece Division was allocated Shs 303mln to be given to the 18 different Saccos.
Komakech said of the 1.15 billion allocated and disbursed to Gulu City in the first phase, over Shs 800mln is yet to be recovered while Shs 327mln had been recovered by end of November this year.
He noted that other groups, like journalists, who borrowed over Shs20mln are yet to pay back the loans taken.
Komakech noted that boda boda cyclists from Bar-dege Layibi have withdrawn all their savings, the government`s seed capital of Shs30mln, leaving only 900,000 in their account.
“Like the boda boda cyclists, have withdrawn all their money including savings, which shouldn’t have been the case. I agree that my office has challenges which we are resolving,” Komakech said.
According to Komakech, they have since halted SACCO executives from disbursing more funds to members until the outstanding monies have been recovered.
“We cannot continue allowing you people [SACCOs] to continue disbursing money when your recovery is very low,” Komakech said.
He said, the first phase beneficiaries of the government program now have until the end of January next year to recover all the monies they received or face being arrested.
“We shall get bailiffs to help us recover the money at 30 percent interest and at the cost of the Emyooga SACCOs. We want these monies recovered so that other people also benefit,” Komakech noted.
Caroline Alarokoma, the coordinator for Emyooga Programme in Acholi Sub-region in a recent interview said that recovery of Emyooga funds stood at only 30 percent, while disbursement was 65 percent.
Robert Okwera, the secretary for production and marketing for Laroo-Pece Division in Gulu City said following his interaction with a few of the poorly performing SACCOs, there is a huge knowledge challenge that is greatly affecting the recovery process.
Okwera blamed the slow recovery of Emyooga funds on the gaps which were not filled during the formation of Emyooga SACCOs and groups at the initial stages of the program.
“Many of the groups are constituted by friends and relatives. In such a scenario, how do you follow up a person who has defaulted to pay his or her loan? These are some of the gaps that for me I see as a reason for the slow recovery of the loans,” Okwera said.
Emyooga Programme is a presidential initiative on wealth and job creation launched in August 2019 as part of the broad government strategy targeting to transform 68 percent of homesteads from subsistence to market-oriented production with the overall objective of promoting job creation and improving household incomes. The initiative is centered on various 18 categories/enterprises/Emyooga covering the majority of the hitherto, financially excluded Ugandans engaged in similar specialized enterprise categories.
These are facilitated with both technical and financial support to enhance the performance of their projects, and ultimately their incomes.
https://thecooperator.news/emyooga-beneficiaries-blame-govt-over-poor-loan-refunds/
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