Mayuge youth fail to repay youth funds

The police in Mayuge district have arrested the former speaker of Mpugwe sub-county for allegedly mismanaging youth livelihood funds at a time when the district is struggling to recover the funds.

Grace Tezita from Maina village was taken into police custody for reportedly mismanaging sh10m given to her group.

He was arrested by Mayuge district community development officer, Paul Mukoli and the police in an operation against youth who mismanaged the funds.

Tezita is said to have used the money for his personal gains instead of starting a wielding project as planned by 14 other members of the group.

Mukoli said the government established a youth livelihood program to equip young people with skills and startup capital as a way of tackling the problem of unemployment.

But many youth groups in the area have failed to refund the money, he added.

Sulaiman Ogajjo Barasa, the Mayuge resident district commissioner (RDC), echoed similar sentiments, saying officials are failing to recover youth program funds since most of the beneficiaries are in hiding after failing to put the money into its appropriate use.

In Mayuge district, only sh34m has so far been repaid out of sh591.9m disbursed to 76 youth groups.

Barasa said the money was received in the financial year 2014/2015, adding that each group received between shs5 and sh10 million.

After receiving the money, many beneficiaries put their share into non-developmental activities while others used it for personal gains, it was revealed.

Barasa said that the programme, which targets mainly youth who have dropped out of school and training institutions, has failed to yield a positive impact.