The State Minister in charge of Microfinance, Haruna Kasolo has directed that Buvuma district gets a special treatment in regards the implementation of Emyooga program.
The minister who was in the district for a follow up meeting was on Tuesday astonished to hear that several members who borrowed from Emyooga saccos didn’t pay back the money they thought was theirs to eat.
“Whoever took money must bring it back. The money isn’t for eating or sharing. The money is to do development work and then you repay it to your Sacco. Whoever told you to eat the money is going to cause you trouble,”Kasolo said.
The minister blamed this state of affairs on leaders who attended preparation meetings for the program whom he said didn’t brief well the public on how the program works.
“The program was affected by Covid and we didn’t have enough time to prepare the beneficiaries. The delegates who attended meeting didn’t disseminate the message properly. Few people sat and agreed to benefit from the Emyooga funds which is wrong. I have resolved that those who had taken the money bring it back so as to restart the program.”
According to the minister, it would be unfair for the district that is made up of 52 scattered islands to be considered as part of Emyooga program basing on district level.
He insisted that many of the islands are far apart, adding that as part of the special arrangement, Emyooga in Buvuma will be implemented at a subcounty level.
“The nature of Buvuma is that there are many islands and it is expensive for people to converge at the district. I have resolved that we have a special program in Buvuma to take the program at sub-county level since it is easy to converge here than at the district,”Kasolo said.
The Minister said he would soon dispatch a team of technocrats from the Microfinance Support Centre to work with the RDC and district commercial officer to prepare ground to ensure the proper implementation of the program at sub-county level.