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Sembabule, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Unscrupulous money lenders and misrepresentation of guidelines have been identified as the major impediments to the effective implementation of the Emyooga program in Sembabule district.
Emyooga is a presidential wealth and job creation initiative, which was launched in 2019, targeting to enhance entrepreneurial capacities of selected groups to improve the livelihood of their members.
The beneficiaries according to the program’s framework are required to form and register Savings and Credit Cooperative Organizations-SACCOs at the parish level that are directly funded with 30 million Shillings as seed capital from the government.
The money is expected to revolve among members in form of soft loans. However, in Sembabule district, the program is experiencing glitches that are affecting its progress and the realization of intended objectives due to unclear guidelines and unscrupulous money lenders operating in the area.
Goretti Namugga, the Mawogola County Member of Parliament indicates that the program guidelines were not elaborated to the beneficiaries leaving a big information gap that was exploited by unscrupulous money lenders that have since fleeced many unsuspecting beneficiaries.
She explains that instead of making modest savings to the SACCOs as a way to naturally grow their loan limits, out of excitement many beneficiaries were misguided to obtain credit from loan sharks, which they used as security to enable them quickly access the program funds.
Namugga says that as a result, many beneficiaries are borrowing from their SACCO to clear the high-demanding money lenders, hence the program failing to meet its objectives in the community.
Reports by the District Commercial Office indicate that Sembabule has 237 SACCOs that have since received Shillings 2.26 billion. However, the district is struggling to recover from the borrowers who have only been able to pay back Shillings 900 million within two years.
Namugga has also attributed the apparent low recovery of the funds to failure by the program implementers to involve all concerned stakeholders in the mobilization of beneficiaries, something she says would support effective implementation, monitoring, and facilitating recoveries.
She has called upon the State Minister for Microfinance, Harunah Kyeyune Kasolo to revise the program guidelines to bring on board all concerned parties towards realizing its successful implementation.
Despite the challenges cited, the State Minister for Microfinance, Harunah Kyeyune Kasolo tasked the local leadership and local program monitors during his program progress motoring tour in the district to ensure that the money is put to effective use to grow the local enterprise groups.
He says the government is considering using the coercive approaches on all defaulters of the program funds and called upon local leaders to move in faster and weed out the unscrupulous speculators before the government reigns in with a bigger force.
Magaba Malik, the Sembabule District Chief Administrative Officer says that they are going to send out their teams on impromptu inspection of all benefiting enterprise groups to find out what they using the money for.
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