Beneficiaries of Emyooga funds in Kabale may never recover the loans, according to the Kabale Municipality Member of Parliament, Dr Nicholas Thaddeus Kamara.
Dr Kamara is currently investigating the implementation of the Emyooga program in his Constituency as directed by the speaker of Parliament.
After meeting the Kabale Resident District Commissioner-RDC Darius Nandinda, the Kabale District Commercial Officer Mr. Erasmus Natumanya , and Emyooga SACCO leaders, Dr. Kamara found out that implementation of the program was largely affected by low funding for monitoring and sensitization activities, which has caused mismanagement of the government grants extended to some SACCOS .
Kabale District received Shs 1.6 billion, while Shs 560 million was meant for Kabale Municipality.
However, all this money did not include facilitation for monitoring activities and the authorities have been using other resources to find a way of sensitizing and supervising the Emyooga program.
According to Dr Kamara, Some SACCOs have been operating without guidance and there’s a high possibility that the loans given out so far may never be recovered, since guidelines were not followed.
“For example, Emyooga loans should not be given without security/collateral, but the SACCOS are just giving out loans to members without anything presented as an assurance that the money will be paid back,” Kamara said.
However, the legislator says there’s hope that a few SACCOS will spring back to life if the Government avails funding for technical guidance and Monitoring, especially through the Microfinance support Centre.
Members of Parliament have been tasked to investigate the same in their constituencies and report to parliament no later than Tuesday Next week.
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