Nebbi struggles to recover first PDM disbursement as grace period ends

NEBBI, September 6, 2026 — Nebbi district is struggling to recover the first batch of Parish Development Model [PDM] funds disbursed to beneficiaries two years ago, with district leaders reporting low repayment rates that threaten the sustainability of the revolving fund.

According to those implementing the programme, Nebbi district received Shs 6.6 billion, benefiting a total of 6,600 beneficiaries under the first and second disbursements of the programme. However, only Shs 2.7 million has so far been recovered from the beneficiaries, dealing a major blow to the district’s recovery efforts.

Boniface Opio, the PDM Focal Point Person, said the two-year grace period for the cohort that received Shs 1 million each for production between late 2022 and 2023 expired in February this year, but the district is facing challenges in recovering the funds.

He said the recovery challenges have been compounded by irregularities in the initial disbursement. In 2023, the disbursement was temporarily halted after it emerged that lists submitted by parish chiefs were dominated by councillors and LCII chairpersons, contrary to PDM guidelines, which target subsistence households.

“We have learned that some of the beneficiaries benefited from the PDM funds, but their details are missing from the PDM checklists. This requires the involvement of village leaders and SACCO leaders to establish their whereabouts,” Opio said.

Opio added that all PDM beneficiaries were required to be enrolled in the system by September 4, 2026, to address missing names in the database. He said the district would engage enterprise leaders to ensure the beneficiaries are captured.

He also said PDM is a household loan, meaning that if a husband received the loan and subsequently dies, his wife remains responsible for repaying it.

Yaya Okwong, a resident of Pulum Parish in Acana Sub-county said some SACCO members are failing to repay PDM loans because some group leaders allegedly inflated beneficiary lists with ghost beneficiaries, making it difficult for genuine members to comply with repayment requirements.

“Other beneficiaries were brought from other places to get PDM money, and they are not featuring on the lists of PDM beneficiaries. We urged the LCs to track the records of PDM beneficiaries because some money was given to friends, relatives and in-laws, with kickbacks paid to leaders, but their details are not on the group lists,” Okwong said.

However, Joseph Paul, a Principal Officer at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives [MTIC], said PDM funds are revolving funds that must be recovered and passed on to other beneficiaries.

He said the programme requires well-structured leadership and effective loan recovery mechanisms.

“The loan recovery was halted during the political season, but since politics is over, loan recovery must resume. The situation in Nebbi is not okay because people received the loans and do not want to pay them back, denying other beneficiaries the opportunity to access the funds,” Paul said.

He added that the wider community has a poor saving culture, with some people wanting to save money today and withdraw it the following day. He also attributed low loan repayment to the diversion of PDM funds from their intended purposes.

He said some beneficiaries had used the money to buy luxury items such as music systems and mattresses and to finance birthday parties.

The Nebbi District Resident Commissioner Robert Abak urged security teams from village to district level to begin tracking the records and whereabouts of PDM beneficiaries as part of efforts to recover the funds.

He said preliminary investigations had established that some beneficiaries relocated to the Democratic Republic of Congo after receiving the funds, adding that efforts would be made to trace them there.

“PDM funds are low-interest loans that the government has channelled to parishes as seed capital for the active poor. But the first beneficiaries have declined to repay the money. We shall come for them,” Abak said.

Launched in February 2022, the PDM aims to move 3.5 million households from subsistence farming to the money economy through investment in sectors like coffee, piggery, poultry farming, fish farming, and crop farming among others.

https://thecooperator.news/nebbi-leaders-reject-agricultural-inputs-over-expired-pesticides/

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