KABAROLE – Kabarole district has launched the disbursement of Parish Development Model [PDM] funds to the 52 parishes in the district.
The Kabarole district PDM focal person, Dr. Salvatore Abigaba said each of the 52 parishes in the district has received Shs 59.2 million each, with the money coming to the parish accounts in three installments.
“As Kabarole district, we received funds worth Shs 3,078,400,000 in three installments. The first installment was Shs 9.2mln per PDM SACCO, Shs 25mln second disbursement and later Shs 25mln totaling to Shs 59.2mln for each SACCO,” Dr. Abigaba said.
During the launch on Friday at the district headquarters in Kitumba, Dr. Abigaba revealed that only 38 PDM beneficiaries had received their money in their respective bank accounts.
The State Minister for Local Government, Victoria Rusoke who was the chief guest at the launch asked for the full list of all beneficiaries of the programme.
Rusoke appealed to all the PDM beneficiaries to use the money for the right purpose.
“The president [Museveni] has now revised PDM guidelines and has advised that those who take money for PDM should be given a period of two years to start paying back but I advise you that when you get money, you can still pay to reduce on the burden,” she said.
The Kabarole deputy resident district commissioner, Paul Ogalo called upon all stakeholders to stop the blame game while implementing this programme.
He said the money being disbursed under the PDM is meant to benefit the poor people the government wants to move into the money economy.
“There should not be any strings attached for our people to access this money. Let people receive all their money in full as approved by the PDM SACCO committee,” Ogalo said.
The Kabarole district LCV chairperson, Richard Rwabuhinga noted that the youth]and women should be given top priority when handling PDM without leaving behind men and other special interest groups such as people living with disabilities and the elderly.
“This is not a grant but money given for all eligible people in the parish to benefit and be returned to enable other members of the parish also to benefit following the laid down guidelines,” Rwabuhinga said.
He however argued that people should borrow the money based on the budgets of their businesses. For example, for someone to start a business to make Rolex, one may not need Shs 1mln to start, for the market vendor to stock his/her stall he/she may not necessarily need Shs 1mln. Under the PDM, each of the 10,594 parishes in Uganda is supposed to receive Shs 100 million this financial year for enterprise groups. The same amount will be disbursed to the parishes in the next four years.
Rwabuhinga guided that the PDM money should reach as many PDM beneficiaries as possible as possible. Government has pledged to finance programme with over Shs 1 trillion each financial year.
Launched in February 2022, the PDM is meant to benefit 39 percent of the active poor Ugandans and help them get out of poverty by improving their household incomes through commercial production, with enterprises such as dairy, coffee, bananas, piggery, grains, cereals, and fish farming being considered.
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