In January, 1997, President Yoweri Museveni, our visionary leader initiated the coveted Universal Primary Education (UPE). Many didn’t see his foresight.
Even when he introduced the Universal Secondary Education (USE) in February, 2007, very few saw his vision. In fact, some detractors disrupted President Museveni free education vision, with continued charges of fees. Nevertheless, many school going children were able to enroll—and the literacy levels across the country have since swelled.
Using a similar approach, the visionary leader also rolled out the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) in 2001 to address con constraints of lack of access to agricultural information, knowledge and improved technology among rural poor farmers in the country.
However, the program reached a few people. And on the 26th February, 2022, the Parish Development Model (PDM) was initiated by the President as a strategy to improve service delivery and alleviate poverty at the grassroots level.
“Since the focus of PDM is on agriculture, crops take time to mature. Let the borrowers start to pay after 24 months. The borrower can decide to pay all the money at once or in instalments for between 24 to 36 months,” President Museveni said, adding, “The purpose is for our people to grow and not to grow the SACCO fund. So don’t just concentrate on the funding to grow.”
The parish development model is an improvement from Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) where people used to receive grants to now giving them a revolving fund where government injects into SACCOs a one-off seed capital.
And the President’s call was that all leaders must always guide local on these programmes in the simplest way possible.
He also underscored the importance of leaders communicating well with ordinary people.
The elites ‘Abasoma’ must deliberately care about the ordinary people. The ordinary people at the parish SACCO, who borrow Parish Development Model money should not be harassed to pay back so quickly, but should be given more time.
The money that Government puts into Emyooga and the Parish Development Model (PDM) is a stick of dynamite against parasites in Uganda such as money lenders, who exploit people by imposing unnecessary interest rates and harassment.
Within Manafwa, the district received shs1, 280, 000, 000 billion for the first and second batch disbursements. In total, 99.8% of Emyooga funds were disbursed, targeting 263 beneficiaries. They have all embarked on various investments within their various sectors.
For PDM, Manafwa district received a total of sh16, 805, 902, 012 billion for the first, second and third batch. A total of 17, 343 beneficiaries have so far received PDM funds, representing 99.8%.
On Emyooga, the President guided that beneficiaries be allowed enough to invest and produce before they start to pay back the money. This is the best guidance because it gives the beneficiaries time to grow their businesses and projects.
A similar trend should be taken when it comes to PDM. In fact, the President cautioned the PDM secretariat not to harass locals while forming SACCOs.
The corrupt are also on notice over the Parish Development Model, a parish microfinance scheme operated by the government to finance local enterprises.
So, PDM and Emyooga are projects that are in direct sync with the key tenets of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM), especially the social-economic transformation ideology.
If the shs100m that Government has injected per parish is well utilized well, the 2026 general elections will be a walk-over for NRM. In fact, these programmes that President Museveni introduced are a game changer for the country.
The role of the local people, especially farmers is to stick to the products emphasised by government officials under the PDM and demand government to secure the market, which President Museveni has already secured through his Pan-Africanism ideology of expanding East Africa Community, Africa and global market frontiers.
The writer is the Deputy RDC Manafwa district and a member of the Rotary club of Kasangati
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