Bishop Sheldon urges church leaders to create income-generating projects

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Bishop of Ankole Diocese Rt. Rev. Sheldon Mwesigwa has advised church leaders in the Bunyoro Kitara diocese (BKD) to create different income-generating activities instead of depending on Sunday collections.

He noted that the church can no longer survive only on traditional ways of collecting Sunday offerings from believers to carry out church development.

Bishop Mwesigwa made the call during an engagement with BKD church leaders led by Rt. Rev Jacob Ateirweho, the Bishop of BKD. The engagement held at All Saints’ City Church in Hoima City seeks partnership to establish Ankole Diocese Millenium SACCO Ltd in the diocese.

Mwesigwa listed enterprises, including: coffee, cocoa, business and real estate investment, which he said would generate income for their churches to ensure development.

He also challenged church leaders to mobilise their followers to embrace wealth creation campaigns for their social and economic transformation.

“All churches should strive to have church projects for income generation instead of only relying on Sunday collection from the Christians, which is not sustainable. It is also important that we, as a church, see how we improve the lives of our people,” he said.

He noted that the Ankole Diocese formed Millenium SACCO Ltd to help the local people who were not able to access financial support from banks and financial institutions at high interest rates.

Mwesigwa added that Ankole Diocese Millenium SACCO does not look at one’s religious affiliation, but it only focuses on empowering all God’s people with financial inclusion to be able to move from poverty to Money economy.

He added that his diocese is looking forward to partnering with other dioceses such as BKD to open branches of Ankole Diocese Millenium SACCO to help Christian’s access financial support, training in financial management and how to grow a business.

Bishop Rt. Rev Jacob Ateirweho commended Bishop Sheldon for the initiative and described the opening of a branch in the diocese as a big opportunity for many Christians engaged in coffee, maize, and cocoa growing and businesses.  
 
However, he urged Christians to embrace the saving culture as one way of fostering social economic development.  Ateirweho said there is a need for the Christian community, especially women and youth to embrace a saving culture, adding that once they start saving, they will be able to invest for the future.
 He also added that the introduction of the SACCO has come at the right time as the country gears up for the oil and gas production phase, where different people need financial support to invest in the oil and gas opportunities.
 “We are going to mobilise our Christians, church leaders and farmers in the diocese to join and save with this SACCO because through saving, they will be able to acquire loans at a lower interest rate for them to grow their business,” he said.
 Fred Muhumuza, the chairperson of the board of Millenium SACCO Ltd, said that Bunyoro has a lot of business potential created by oil and gas development, but many people are not prepared to benefit.