The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Parliament has tasked the government to explain why private teachers under Lockdown have not received their SACCO funds which were promised by President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.
In his last national address on COVID-19, President Museveni promised to inject 2 billion Uganda shillings into the Private Teacher’s Savings and Credit Cooperative Society-SACCO and also directed the Finance Ministry preferably through the Microfinance Support Centre to allocate Shillings 20 billion Uganda shillings to the same SACCO to allow teachers to access loans.
Early this month the executive director at Microfinance Support Centre, John Peter Mujuni said that each teachers’ SACCO will directly get its money. Mujuni says that they expect teachers to create and register SACCOs of not more than 30 people.
However, while raising a matter of National Importance, during a plenary session on Wednesday chaired by the Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga, Kawempe North MP Abdu-latif Ssebagala Sengendo said the government has never issued any guidelines on access to the funds forcing teachers to wait desperately while they struggle under the lockdown.
He stated that the government should clearly come out to state how teachers will access the funds.
He has also demanded that the government should allocate an additional 100 Billion Uganda shillings to assist the teachers.
Schools have been shut since March following the outbreak of COVID-19, there is no clear position by government on when or if schools will open this year.
Kadaga expressed concern that the government has neglected the duty of saving teachers who have been suffering under the lockdown. She added that several times ministers have been asked on how these funds will be distributed and there has been no answer.
The public Service minister Muruli Mukasa responded by stating that Government will issue the guidelines in two weeks.
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