KWANIA – Betty Amongi, the Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development has given Post Bank Uganda two weeks to conclude the process of opening bank accounts for the beneficiaries of the Parish Development Model [PDM] in Kwania or risk losing the business.
The PDM conceived under the National Development Plan [NDP III] was launched in February 2022 with the aim of moving 3. 5 million households still trapped in the subsistence economy to the money economy.
Post Bank Uganda, owned by the government, is one of the commercial banks in the country that were contracted by the government to distribute the PMD funds to beneficiaries.
However, in Kwania district, only 78 out of the 1,364 registered beneficiaries of the PDM have been able to open accounts at Post Bank Uganda, according to Catharine Akello, the Kwania district principal commercial officer.
While launching the disbursement of the PDM funds on Monday at Boma Grounds, minister Amongi directed Post Bank officials at Lira Branch to speed up the process of opening the bank accounts for the PDM beneficiaries so that they can have their money disbursed to them.
“As ministers, we are mandated to stop banks that are not working well and give the work to another active bank. I am therefore giving you a period of two weeks to open accounts for all the beneficiaries,” she said.
Put an announcement over the radio and move down to villages and open accounts for the targeted beneficiaries or else you will lose it,” she said.
The minister implored PDM beneficiaries in Kwania to use the funds for intended purposes to improve their household income.
“The PDM is meant to create wealth, employment and increase household incomes. I am requesting you to utilise the funds on the selected enterprises like coffee, cotton, fish farming, and dairy. Don’t spend the money on marriage ceremonies,” he added.
Tony Ayo, Kwania County Member of Parliament says, “I am very concerned about the delay by Post Bank officials to open accounts for the programme’s beneficiaries. It is the bank delaying beneficiaries to get money. We shall come back here to monitor this within two weeks. Failure by the bank to open accounts for all the beneficiaries will make us give the job to another bank that is able.”
Fred Wejili, the manager Post Bank Uganda Lira Branch apologised for the delay, adding that all was being done to ensure that all accounts for the PDM beneficiaries are opened.
‘On behalf of Post Bank, I would like to apologise for the inconvenience. We have had a challenge with database…All is being done to rectify the situation, “he said.
So far, a total of 78 PDM beneficiaries have received Shs.1mln each in their accounts.
Benard Opollot Apollo, Kwania chief administrative officer said is part of the Shs 348mln disbursed to 49 parish SACCOs in the district by the government.
“For now, each parish is supposed to get Shs 17mln to start the implementation of this programme [PDM] and later government will send this money in installments up to Shs 100mln starting with this financial year. The project will go for five years,” he said.
https://thecooperator.news/equity-bank-starts-disbursing-funds-to-pdm-saccos/
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