PDM: MPs rally vulnerable persons to form businesses

GULU-Members of Parliament from Acholi Sub-region have urged the vulnerable persons to establish and register their enterprises before running to borrow from the Parish Development Model [PDM] funds aimed at fighting poverty in 39 percent of Uganda’s households considered to be very poor.

The vulnerable persons that were advised to form the enterprises include widows, widowers, persons with disabilities [PWDs], and orphans. Under the PDM guidelines, only registered and licensed groups will be able to access the funds.

The Government is injecting  Shs100 million per parish every year for five years, starting with the new financial year, even though it already advanced some funds in the current financial year.

Betty Aol Ochan, the Gulu City Woman Member of Parliament, who has mobilized all the widows within the city to form Gulu City Widows Association, told the widows that whereas the funds are from the government are in form of a grant, eligible borrowers will have to pay back the money to the PDM SACCO for others to borrow.

She said it was important for widows to have businesses in order to access money easily. “ Where will you get the money if you don’t have any enterprise you have ventured in? For me I want you to start something small so that when you borrow, you are borrowing to strengthen and or expand your business”, MP Aol said.

Aol advertised the widows to acquire business management skills, saying several smaller businesses in Uganda have collapsed because the owners borrow money when they don’t have any financial management experience.

Geoffrey Okello Charles, Nwoya East Member of Parliament while meeting locals in Ceke B, Ceke Village in Langele Parish in Lii Sub County Nwoya district on Monday this week said advised the vulnerable community who in most cases don’t have enough land to prioritize perennial farming as opposed to short term crops.

Okello said that if one plants crops like macadamia, palm tree, cocoa, coffee among others, he or she can begin reaping in between three to five years’ time, which will still be within the module time frame.

According to Okello, there is need to break the mindset in the region that for one to get rich, one must plant tobacco, which he said is outdated, adding that there is no ready market for tobacco compared to the other crops like maize, beans, sim sim and others which have high demand domestically and internationally.

Joska Lakop, a widow, with a physical disability said that vulnerable persons have been sidelined from government opportunities, a reason, she said, many of them are not in any form of business.

Lakop says that they are interested in starting a business but lack capital and required knowledge to run and manage the business given their poor educational background and the general environment.

Currently, Members of Parliament are traversing their constituencies sensitizing the masses on the PDM, with its implementation starting in July this year.

https://thecooperator.news/masindi-pdm-saccos-receive-their-certificates-of-registration/

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