Leaders in Bukwo district have witnessed the handover of 230 million shillings cheque to the youth representative leader Isaiah Chemongei and the Resident District Commissioner (RDC) Tom Chesol Kwomu last Saturday. Since the inception of the program in 2013, the government of Uganda has injected more than 65 billion shillings in 2013/2014 and billions of money have been channeled back to the youth for their livelihood projects this year.
In response to the welcomed idea, The Resident District Commissioner Bukwo district, Tom Chesol retaliated that, as much as this money comes, we are proud that the youth have been trained and since their project proposals where received, both at sub-county level and district, this money is not theirs, so we expect them to pay back the money with some interest after some time, but this time with close monitoring.
He said this in reference to the lack of proper management through monitoring and accountability, corruption or greed and the effect of global weather change. The presidential initiative is a program that targets the youth to invest more in agro-business, entrepreneurship, farming, animal husbandry, and cooperatives. All centered in elevating the financial status of the youth to be self-reliant and job creators since the rate of employment opportunities in Uganda nowadays is alarming.
Apparently most of the funds given to the youth across the country, did not materialize, with corruption and greed becoming a pandemic, police tracked down most of these youth but however nothing good came out of it, some allege that most top districts officials took the lions share leaving the youth wondering and wallowing with poverty. And so, one wonders what might come out of this New Year plans from the government in mitigating the shambolic detracting behaviors affecting transparency.
Challenges Faced By The Youth Groups In Sebei Sub Region
Sebei sub-region has three districts, Bukwo, Kween, and Kapchorwa. It has a population of more than 2000 youth. Most of the youth are learned but no employment jobs, the land fragmentation has been a night mere since education and production is expensive. The emergence of youth livelihood program is a clap to the government and many youth wants such golden opportunities both with good and wrong intentions.
High budget cuts were made on the groups’ requisitioned funds. This greatly affected the implementation of the activities. Indeed, some groups indicated diverting resources from other sources to fill in the gaps. A number of groups revealed introducing membership fees to bridge the budget gaps.
Most of the Key informants argued that in the financial year 2014/2015, there was an inadequate budget allocation for monitoring the program in the whole financial year. This fund were insufficient not even to fuel the motorcycles.
Majority of the youth groups indicated delay in release of the funds by the district. This affected the implementation of the enterprises as the value for funds is eroded by inflation and Enterprises dealing in agriculture suffered from seasonal weather conditions. Actually, the most hit groups were those engaged in animal traction.
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