PDM beneficiaries cautioned against spending money on festivities

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The State Minister for Northern Uganda Rehabilitation, Grace Freedom Kwiyucwiny has cautioned beneficiaries of the Parish Development Model (PDM) fund to desist from spending the money on festivities.

According to Kwiyucwiny, the fund rolled out by the government is intended to alleviate poverty at the parish level across the country and tasked benefiting groups to spend it only on the enterprises they selected.

The Minister was on Thursday speaking at the launch of the disbursement of the Parish Revolving fund from the Parish Savings and Credit Cooperative Organisations (SACCOS) accounts to household accounts in Gulu city.

The parish revolving fund is a capitalization grant from the government to SACCOs meant for lending to viable income-generating activities in the production, processing, marketing, and storage of agricultural products.

A total of 17 million Shillings, part of the parish revolving fund for the beneficiaries was on Thursday disbursed to 17 households from Paicho sub-county at the launch through an E-banking system at DFCU and Centenary banks.

Kwiyucwiny however notes that for the fund to be successful in alleviating poverty, the respective individuals benefiting from PDM must first change their mindset from thinking the money is a gift from the government.

She notes that as the PDM money has now started hitting the accounts of beneficiaries, it is incumbent upon the parish supervisors to ensure keen monitoring of the projects.

Michael Ayekwa, an official from the PDM secretariat says the fund disbursed to the beneficiaries is a revolving fund that will be used by the beneficiaries without being returned to the government.

He also reiterated that the befitting groups must ensure they utilize the money properly to achieve success.

Ayekwa revealed that the government has released over 2 Billion Shillings in parish revolving fund for beneficiaries in Acholi sub-region in both Centenary and DFCU banks.

Alfred Ocen, Gulu District Commercial Officer says each of the 47 Saccos at the Parish level currently has a total of 32 million shillings in the accounts that will be disbursed to the households.

He however encouraged the Parish Sacco leaders to follow the necessary steps in processing the disbursement of their funds.

According to the government, PDM is targeting a total of 16.1 million Ugandans (3.5 million households) living under a subsistence economy.

Under the initiative, the government intends to disburse a total of 100 million shillings to SACCOS in each of the 10,594 parishes across the country this financial year 2022/23.

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