AGAGO, June 25, 2024 – Agago district is struggling to convince women and youth in the district to repay Shs 2 billion government disbursed to them to finance different income-generating projects.
According to the district LC5 Chairperson, Leonard Opio Ojok, government advanced Shs 952 million to women under Uganda Women`s Entrepreneurship Programme [UWEP] in financial years 2015/2016, 2016/2017, 2017/2018 and Shs 1.2 billion to youth groups but less that Shs 500mln has been recovered.
He said only Shs 155mln received under UWEP has been repaid and for the Youth Livelihood Programme [YLP], only Shs 291mln has been recovered to make a total Shs 446mln in recovered funds for the two programmes.
“This means 75 percent of the revolving funds are still with the women and youth in the district,” Opio said, adding that this situation is not a motivation for government to inject more money into the women and youth.
Government launched UWEP in 2016 to improve access to financial services for women and equip them with skills for enterprise growth, value addition and marketing of their products and services.
On the other hand, YLP was launched in 2013 with the main objective of empowering the youth to harness their social economic potentials and increase self-employment opportunities and income levels.
Ojok called upon the women and youth who received the money to consider repaying the money so that other beneficiaries can use, failure to repay, Ojok warned, they will face the wrath of the law. “I want to appeal to our mothers and the young people with this money to pay it back so that other people will also be able to access it,” he said.
However, the District Community Development Officer, Gabriel Oola said some of the groups through which the beneficiaries got the money have collapsed while some members have disappeared without any trace.
“You find that some groups have already disintegrated but we are trying as a district to ensure that people pay up this [UWEP, and YLP] money because it is a revolving fund,” said Oola.
Asked why these people didn’t honour their obligation to repay the money, Oola had no clear reply but added, “I think some of the enterprises they picked, like goat rearing and piggery did not do well but the major challenge was that mindset change.”
Efforts to recover the money ongoing
Oola said one they are thinking of holding a a stakeholders` meeting involving the beneficiaries and security agencies to request those who received the money to pay back. “We are going to request them to pay back the money because the repayment period of three years has since elapsed,” he said.
He said in a situation where a debtor is not able to pay, they will move to attach their properties. “Although we will not recover 100 percent but we want to ensure that we recover that money so that other members also benefit out of it,” he added.
On his part, Agago district Youth Chairperson, Wilson Otto said there was not much sensitisation of the youth before receiving the money which many thought was a gift from government, and so was not used for the intended purposes.
“There were a lot of gaps and most of the people who got money in the first phase of disbursement have run away, although some of them are being arrested,” he added, urging government to write off the loans.
Run under the Gender ministry, UWEP targets women in the age bracket of 18 to 65 years while YLP targets young people in the age bracket of 18 to 30 years.
https://thecooperator.news/gulu-uwep-group-under-investigation-over-10-8mln-fraud/
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