Emyooga fund defaulters to face arrest

FORT PORTAL: The State Minister for Finance Planning and Economic Development in charge of microfinance, Haruna Kasoro Kyeyune has given Emyooga fund defaulters one month to clear their debts or face arrest.

Kasoro was speaking at Boma playground in Fort Portal city during the Monitoring of Emyooga programme in Rwenzori sub region.

Kasoro said, most people are defaulting on Emyooga money intentionally thinking it was free money and some shared it among themselves.

“Those who think they will not pay back Emyooga money are in trouble because we are going to arrest you. Am now asking the Commercial Officer to compile a list of all defaulters and submit it to the Resident City Commissioner [RCC] with all their details. Am giving them only one month to have cleared arrears,” he said.

He said those who took money are supposed to refund so that others can also borrow and benefit from the program in their respective Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies [SACCOS].

“This money is a seed capital and it’s a revolving fund meant to help you get out of poverty and improve your household income,” he said.

However, Kasoro noted that districts in Tooro are not doing well as far as Emyooga programme is concerned and appealed to the public to embrace the programme for it to carry meaning.

“I want to congratulate you for doing well but other constituencies in the Central region, Ankole and Kigezi are doing much better,” he said.

He said some districts where he has monitored some individual SACCOS have saved more than Shs 100m. He gave an example of a directly elected leaders’ SACCO in Masaka that has saved Shs210m.

He encouraged Emyooga SACCOS to put much emphasis on savings if they want their SACCOS to grow.

“Growth of every SACCO is from numbers. Increase your share capital and savings and you will thank me later. It’s not that the money we gave you was not enough but it depends on the way you are using it” he said.

He appealed to all Emyooga SACCOS and even those who did not join to have a habit of saving every day if they want to get out of poverty.

“You need to save before you spend, not spend then you save the balance. The problem with you people is that you are too hungry; you want to spend more than you earn without saving” he said.

According to the Fort Portal City Commercial Officer, Micheal Karwani, Fort Portal City has 36 Emyooga SACCOS, each of the two constituencies having 18.

Karwani said each constituency received Shs 560m totalling to Shs 1,120m.

Achievements

Karwani said, the programme has increased household income and projects from different SACCOS have also improved.

He said capital in different businesses has increased and all these SACCOS have offices.

Challenges

Most SACCOS closed during COVID-19 lockdown because most businesses were shut down until early this year when the economy was fully opened.

There is also a challenge of SACCOS with many associations receiving the same amount of money as those with few associations.

Performance.

The 18 SACCOS of central division have shares of Shs 18,930,000 since August last year, savings of Shs 58,133,600 loan disbursement of Shs 69,204,000 and recovery of Shs 294,527,000.

The 18 SACCOS of North division fort Portal City have shares of Shs 16, 296, 000, savings of Shs 43,529,400, loan disbursed of Shs 644,755,200 and loan recoveries of Shs.294,591,160.

The Fort Portal Resident City Commissioner [RCC], Angalia Kasigwa Godwin has encouraged the technical team to continue sensitizing the public to join Emyooga SACCOS.

He said the program will help in improving household income and help people get out of poverty.

He appealed to the public to embrace the parish development model that was recently launched by the president.

https://thecooperator.news/lira-produce-sacco-requests-msc-to-probe-emyooga/

Buy your copy of thecooperator magazine from one of our  country- wide vending points or an e-copy on emag.thecooperator.news