Seven wards in Mbarara City miss out on PDM funds
MBARARA – A total of seven wards in Mbarara City are yet to receive money being disbursed by government under the Parish Development Model [PDM] to fight poverty in households engaged in subsistence production.
Government has so disbursed Shs 960 million to Mbarara City to be disbursed to the targeted beneficiaries through their PDM SACCOs.
Dr. Moses Amanyire, the city senior production officer explained that the PDM groups in the wards missed to receive the funds because of technical glitches encountered during the registration of the PDM SACCOs.
The affected wards include; Katete, Rukindo, Nyamityobora all In Mbarara City South, and Rwenjeru, Bunusya, Rwemigina, and Kamukuzi all in Mbarara City North.
“There were typing errors and mistakes in accounts. Also, the PDM system mistook the account of Rwenjeru for Bunusya. If it is not addressed, it means that Bunusya will keep receiving more funds while Rwenjeru will be losing,” Amanyire noted.
According to Dr. Amanyire, Mbarara City received 960 mln for the 23 PDM SACCOs registered in both of the two divisions that make up Mbarara City.
“We have so far received over Shs 900mln revolving fund but if you add the operational funds, it is almost one billion,” he said.
Apart from the initial Shs 8 million that was disbursed to all SACCOs in June 2022, the seven wards have not received any other funds, a few days to the beginning of the financial year 2023/2024.
He urged the beneficiaries to always fill in their documents with the right information if they are to benefit from government programmes, especially the PDM for which the government intends to inject in over Shs 1 trillion annually, targeting 10, 594 parishes in the country.
“For that matter, I request the beneficiaries to follow the instructions and avoid unnecessary errors if you are to benefit from the PDM,” Amanyire said.
He added: “Out of 23 PDM SACCOs in Mbarara City, only 16 SACCOs have so far received Shs 57 mln each out of the Shs 100mln government earmarked for each parish in the financial year 2022/2023 as a revolving fund for groups engaged activities such as coffee growing, dairy farming, fruts growing, poultry keeping, beekeeping, and piggery among other enterprises.
Mwine Mpaka, Area MP Mbarara City South Division said government has allocated over 1.1 bln in the financial year 2023/24 to cater for the constituency’s wards that have not accessed the PDM funds.
The PDM, launched in February 2022, is expected to move 3.5 million households in Uganda stuck in subsistence economy to the money economy at least within five years, beginning with the financial year 2022/ 2023.
The funds under the PDM fall under the Financial Inclusion Pillar III which is aligned to a number of government policies such as; the National Microfinance Policy launched in 2008 to extend access to microfinance all over the country, the National Cooperative Policy aimed at strengthening the cooperative movement for sustaniable development, and the National Financial Inclusion Strategy which was launched in 2017 with the overall vision to foster access to and use of a broad range of quality and affordable financial services.
Other pillars of the PDM include: production, storage, processing and marketing; infrastructure and economic services; social services; mindset change and crosscutting issues; parish based information management system; governance and administration.
https://thecooperator.news/translate-pdm-guidelines-into-local-languages-govt-told/
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