SHEEMA – The chancellor of Makerere University Prof. Ezra Suruma has appealed to SACCO leaders to arrest beneficiaries who misuse Parish Development Model [PDM] funds.
He said this days ago while launching the disbursement of PDM funds in Sheema district which was among the first nine districts to receive the funds under the programme expected to move 3.5 million households in Uganda from subsistence agriculture to the money economy.
The distinguished economic scholar and banker is the principle investigator of the programme, having sold the idea to President Museveni.
Suruma said Ugandans have labour and land but don’t have capital which fostered government to inject money in the PDM SACCOs for locals to develop themselves.
He added that government got disappointed as commercial banks for failed to penetrate rural areas, making locals to miss their services.
“At first we thought commercial banks will extend to the villages to allow people to bank and even get loans but this never happened. They are only concentrated in major towns, a reason we decided to start parish SACCOs that can serve people,” he said.
Joseph Basigaire, one of the beneficiaries from Kitagata Sub-county complained that Shs 1 million given to each member is low to start up economic activities.
Yoramu Byenshaka, another beneficiary advised government to introduce tough rules in the PDM programme to stop people from stealing the funds.
“The program does not involve collateral security, now if one of the members defaults, how do we recover our money as a SACCO?” Byenshaka asked.
Suruma still insisted that beneficiaries who will attempt to default SACCO funds will be arrested to recover the monies.
“If you borrow money from the SACCO, make sure you pay back and whoever steals the parish development model SACCO money, should be arrested because that will be people’s savings,” he said.
He emphasised the point of buying shares and saving to increase the capital base for sustainability.
He also encouraged PDM SACCO leaders to be transparent with members’ savings which will build trust among their members.
“A SACCO becomes strong with members’ savings but with one which is not trusted people should not put their money. The intention of parish model is to chase poverty out of our country in terms of food, health and capital,” said Suruma.
Purikeria Muhindo, the Resident district commissioner [RDC] Sheema emphasised that government can only talk of success if all its development programmes benefit citizens.
“This is not the first time government is thinking about getting its people out of poverty. The first poverty eradication programmes succeeded because now, only 39 percent of Ugandans are living below the poverty line, a reason why PDM has come”
“I want to promise that if we work as a team, PDM will be the magic bullet which will chase poverty from Sheema,” she added.
Prof. Ephraim Kamuntu, the senior presidential advisor on economic affairs said a total of about 19mln Ugandans are still stuck in subsistence farming.
He said, “If a country has such a proportion, to achieve the middle income status will be hard because to achieve this people must have income.”
“The philosophy behind the PDM is to get people out of poverty. Previously 68.9 percent of the households were stuck in subsistence economy but now it is 39 percent which is equivalent to 3.5 million households,” Kamuntu said.
According to Robertson Kansiime, Sheema district production officer, the first nine districts in Uganda to receive the PDM funds.
Out of 51 PDM SACCOs, 47 PDM SACCOs have so far been capitalised and a total of 646 enterprise groups formed, consisting of 9,335 farmers.
“337mln were sent for 51 SACCOs and 10 farmers from Kyabuharambo and Ryakashambya ward received their money during the launching of the funds disbursements.
https://thecooperator.news/ibanda-civil-servants-warned-over-misuse-of-pdm-funds/
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