A new fund to help support small businesses’ earning power and boost the financial standing of Saving and Credit Cooperatives Societies has been announced.
In a speech to the populace in the Greater Masaka region gathered in Masaka town, State Minister in charge of Microfinance, Haruna Kyeyune Kasolo, said that each SACCO will receive Shs30 million to boost its productivity and performance.
The fund forms part of the government’s strategy on socio-economic transformation program in which the government has committed itself to covert 68 percent of the country’s homesteads currently in subsistence economic activities to market-oriented production.
According to Kyeyune, the fund will be managed by the Finance ministry and shall be called “Emyooga”
For the start, it shall target to fund at least 17 SACCOs from each of the 112 districts across the country with an additional group comprised of leaders of each district.
The target SACCOs and social enterprises are motorcycle commercial operators, commonly referred to as Boda Boda riders, women entrepreneurs, carpenters, saloon operators, taxi Operators, welders, restaurant owners, market vendors, persons with a disability, mechanics, produce dealers, performing artists, and fishmongers.
“The President directs that each of these groups mobilise themselves into Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies-SACCOs, at their parish levels, which will eventually be capitalised with 30 million shillings each,” Kyeyune announced.
Meanwhile, already 163 groups from the districts of Masaka, Lwengo, Kalungu, Bukomansimbi, Sembabule, Lyantonde, Kalangala, Rakai and Kyotera; comprised of people engaged in various enterprises have shown interests in benefiting from the fund.
Ritah Namuwenge, the chairperson of Youth Action for Social Political and Economic Development, one of the association that is tasked with monitoring the implementation of the funds, cautioned the communities against politicising the initiative, describing it as a broad-based scheme that targets all people regardless of the political party affiliation.
Emyooga fund adds to the list of several other poverty alleviation campaign government has been implementing. These include among others; Operational Wealth Creation-OWC, Youth Livelihood Program-YLP, Women Entrepreneurship Program-UWEP, and the Microfinance Savings and Credit Cooperatives Fund-SACCOs.
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