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The Minister of State for Veteran Affairs, Huda Oleru, has urged Yumbe district residents to embrace the Parish Development Model (PDM) programme for social economic transformation.

She made the remarks on Sunday, April 28, 2024, shortly after Yumbe district LC5 chairperson Abdulmutalib Asiku revealed that the district had so far received sh9.1b under PDM.

The minister had gone to Yumbe to inaugurate a Health Centre II maternity ward built by the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces engineers as part of this year's Defence Forces week.

The President launched the PDM programme in February 2022. PDM is a government multi-sectoral strategy to reduce poverty, by moving 39% of households (i.e., 3.5 million households or 16.1 million Ugandans) under subsistence economy (living hand-to-mouth), into the money economy.

The Government in the financial year 2022/2023, allocated shillings 100 million for each of the 10,594 parishes across the country to support the aforementioned Ugandans to engage in commercially viable agribusiness value chain enterprises.

The minister also confirmed that all the West Nile Bank Front veterans had been verified and will be paid starting next week.

Oleru was accompanied by chief of civil-military cooperation in UPDF Emmanuel Rwashande, who represented Chief of Defence Forces Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the 4th Division commander, and the deputy director defence public information.