Kadaga critical of Busoga 'donor mentality'

Jan 30, 2016

Rebecca Kadaga challenged farmers to establish nursery beds of oranges, mangoes and coffee.

 

KAMULI - The Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga has blamed Busoga's production and commercial officers for failing to help local farmers form SACCOS to boost production in the area.

"I am tired of seeing [Busoga] people buying matooke [bananas] from Mbarara and Bugisu, yet we can produce our own here. When shall we stop this donor mentality?" she said during a consultative meeting.

The meeting at Kamuli Century Hotel involved community savings and credit groups.

Referring to the Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) programme, Kadaga was particularly irked that government injects billions in the purchase of agricultural inputs but Busoga, as a region, has not tapped into the supply-chain fund but instead are buyers.

She challenged farmers to establish nursery beds of oranges, mangoes and coffee so that the money from OWC can also remain within Busoga.

adaga and state minister aroline mali kao left have a look a products of wisania  redit eoffrey amukoye Kadaga and state minister Caroline Amali Okao (left) have a look a products of Twisania SACCO. (Credit: Geoffrey Namukoye)

 

The Speaker also called for a "cooperatives spirit" which was upheld by Busoga's forefathers, saying most of the cherished developments accrued from well-managed cooperatives.

Lack of financial discipline is the reason SACCOs in Busoga get little funding, she said. "In Bushenyi, SACCOs are getting billions from government while in Kamuli, it is a pity that we are getting sh3m to sh5m because of our poor practice."

More importantly, the state minister of finance, Caroline Amali Okao, said communities need to know that money borrowed from SACCOS is not free - it is credit which must be paid back.

Her ministry, she added, is in advanced stages of establishing a law that will pave way for the establishment of a microfinance authority which will license, regulate and supervise all microfinance institutions.

Even with the regulatory law in the pipeline, observers still fear that women will continue to suffer because men who are mostly the abusers of credit are not on board.

"In Kamuli, women form 70% membership of SACCOs, yet it is the husbands who hoodwink them to put money in wrong ventures, and when things go wrong, the men vanish in thin air," said Samuel Basalirwa, a member of Twisania SACCO.

The board chairperson of The Microfinance Support Centre, Justine Bagyenda, said 37 groups from Kamuli are set to receive over 120 million for investing in income-generating activities.

She pledged to ensure that groups are empowered to manage the funds received.

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