Last Updated on: 27th July 2023, 11:17 am
Jinja I At least 1,200 residents in Jinja City have already received more than 1.2b anti-poverty funds from the central government through the Parish Development Model (PDM) Secretariat.
One of the funds’ aims is expected to stimulate the socio-economic transformation of the underprivileged.
While people in some areas only hear of PDM funds being promoted by different leaders through the media, the story is different in Jinja City where many are already putting the funds to use.
Jinja City has two divisions: Southern (literally covering the former Jinja Municipality) and Northern Division which has Bugembe Town Council, Mafubira and Budondo.
According to official information available, Jinja City has a total number of 26 parishes which translates to 26 PDM SACCOs formed per parish in line with the PDM guidelines.
Northern Division, being the largest has 15 parishes, hence 15 PDM SACCOs, while Southern has 11 and each of the SACCOs has already received 107,530,677m wired directly to respective accounts opened in Housing and Finance Bank, Jinja branch.
The Jinja City PDM Coordinator, Christine Kayongo says Southern Division has, as of 21 July 2023 received a total sum of 1,182,837,447m for the 11 PDM SACCOs in the division.
Kayongo, in a Status of PDM Revolving Fund Loan Disbursement Report, says each of the SACCO groups has already received 107,530m which translates to 2,795,797,602b but so far 1.2b has been disbursed.
“…the figures will be more by the end of this month as more people from different SACCO groups get organized and be able to receive the funds already in the accounts..,” Kayongo says.
The publication’s analysis of the figures indicates that the lowest amount received so far is shs19m to a group called Mafubira Ward in Northern Division, while the highest was shs58m disbursed to Namulesa Ward still in Northern Division.
Also read: Why Lango was chosen to host week-long surgical camps in September
The PDM is a government of Uganda strategy for organizing and delivering public and private sector interventions for wealth creation and employment generation at the parish level as the lowest economic planning unit.
It has seven pillars namely Production, Storage, Processing and Marketing; Infrastructure and Economic Services, Financial Inclusion, Social Services, Mindset Change, Parish-based Management Information System and Governance and Administration.
RCC of Jinja Darious Nanidra and his deputies Henry Kitambula (Southern) and Lydia Kalemera (Northern) have welcomed the development, asking beneficiaries to put the money on profitable ventures for transformation.